Lessons Learned
by kaleidoscopicepic
Summary: Bella is a young and troubled single mom in desperate need of money. Edward is the son of two millionaires, and in desperate need of tutoring. Both are students at Harvard. How will they react to one another? What will they learn? Not the best summary R
1. Flying Whale

**Summary: Bella is a young and troubled single mom in desperate need of money. Edward is the son of two millionaires, and in desperate need of tutoring. Both are students at Harvard. How will they react to one another? What will they learn? Read and review. My summary is not the greatest.**

**Lessons Learned**

"_Hawaiian Flight 412 to Seattle-Tacoma- Boarding will commence in 5 minutes- Hawaiian Flight 412 to Seattle-Tacoma"_ The noisy airport was very air-conditioned, and I shivered, and bent down to get a jacket out of my bag.

Suddenly something flew past my left ear, and landed under the seat across from me. I looked around for its origin. A young woman with her back to me set an infant- a girl- on her hip and stood up. "Abra, wher_ever _did you throw your whale? And we've got to get on the plane in five minutes, too!"

She turned towards me, and I was startled. She looked much too young to be a mother. To put her age at twenty would be a stretch. A thick braid the color of dark chocolate reached down her back, a red elastic tying it off. Several inches of thick curls fell beyond that. Not spotting the toy she turned back around, and after a few more minutes of looking, sat back down again to pack up her things.

"_Hawaiian Flight 412 to Seattle-Tacoma, boarding commences now for all passengers who need assistance or extra time boarding- Hawaiian Flight 412 to Seattle-Tacoma."_

I watched her as she boarded the plane, and seeing her walk down the gangway, I darted forward and picked up the toy. It was a small blue whale, made of soft terrycloth, obviously well loved. I would return it to her.

"_Hawaiian Flight 412 to Seattle-Tacoma-Now boarding passengers in rows 25 and up- Hawaiian Flight 412 to Seattle-Tacoma."_

I picked up my bags and walked to get in line. The trip had been a last minute one, and I all the first class seats had been taken. All that was left were a few in the back of the plane. I checked my boarding pass. 27B. Great. A middle seat. And the flight looked really full, so I wouldn't be able to negotiate a window seat. Oh well.

My turn came up in line and I handed the flight attendant my boarding pass. "Ma'am? Could you tell me the seat number of the young woman with the baby? The baby lost her whale, and I'd like to return it to her." I held up the toy.

She nodded absently and typed something into her computer. "Isabella Swan, seat 26A. Next!"

I grinned. I had gotten her name too. Isabella was a pretty name. I recognized it from somewhere, but I couldn't recall where. I was so caught up in thinking about her that I almost bumped into the person standing in front of be on the gangway. Why was she so fascinating to me anyway? What was it about her- 'Snap out of it Edward' I thought to myself. 'You are going to return the whale to her and then you are going to forget all about her.' But somewhere inside, I knew I wouldn't.

The line inched forward, seemingly in slow motion, until finally I stepped into the plane. As the line moved forward, I realized what was holding us up, and became quite annoyed at the woman. Until I realized- it was she. Isabella. She stood in row 26 looking rather forlorn as she held her suitcase and the baby, unable to put the bag up on the luggage rack.

"Allow me." I said, and she looked grateful as she handed me her suitcase. I lifted it easily up to the luggage rack, and pulled the whale out of my pocket. "This wouldn't happen to be yours, would it?"

Her relieved smile lit up my day. "Oh Abra, this nice man returned your whale! Wasn't that nice of him?" The baby buried her face in Isabella's shoulder. She turned back to me. "Thank you so much Mr.?"

"Cullen. But that's my dad. I'm Edward"

She smiled again, illuminating her whole face. "You've just saved me from dealing with countless hours of this little one's crying."

I nodded, and walked back to my seat.

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Several hours later, I closed the book I was reading and tucked it into my bag to think for a while. Could Isabella really be the baby- Abra's- mother? She certainly acted like it. She was so young! Maybe she was older than she looked. Or maybe she was just an aunt or a cousin. But why would an aunt or a cousin be traveling by herself with a baby so young? It didn't make any sense. I watched through the space in between the seats as she interacted with her daughter. I couldn't shake the feeling that Isabella was Abra's mother.

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I exited the plane, knowing this would probably be the last time I would ever see her. She had somehow retrieved her bag from the luggage rack and was packing things into a baby bag with one hand, holding the little girl on her hip with the other. I wished I was leaving the airport to go home to our house in Forks, but I was going on to Boston, to go back to college, and my parents were living at their house in New Hampshire now, the house in Forks would be empty.

My parents had a number of houses, a house in Forks, Washington, where I had grown up, a house in rural New Hampshire, in a small town on Lake Winnipesauke, a house in New York City, a house in Miami, flats in London, Paris, and Rome, and a house in Rio de Janeiro. My father, Carlisle, was a successful businessman, he had been a surgeon for many years, but had started a network of hospitals across the country specializing in cancer research, and had helped many people, in addition to making a huge pile of money. Esme, my mother was not the society wife everyone expected her to be. She was a well-known architect, and she had designed all of my father's hospitals, and many other important buildings. I had two siblings, Alice and Emmett, who were both older than me, at 25 and 27. I was 23, and in my second year of medical school at Harvard.

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I stopped at a Starbucks to wake myself up with a latte before continuing on to my next flight.

"_JetBlue Flight 746 to Boston Logan. Boarding will commence in five minutes. JetBlue Flight 746 to Boston Logan."_

Just as the intercom turned off, Isabella Swan rushed into the seating area, looking harried. I couldn't keep my eyes off of her. Was she really going to be on my flight to Boston as well? This was good luck, such as I'd never had before.

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**A/N: I'm interested in continuing this, but I'm going to want a couple of reviews before I do so. I love to hear your feedback; even if it's just a simple "I liked it". So, please hit that button right below this note and tell me what you thought! **


	2. Coincidences

**Disclaimer: (Forgot this last chapter! Whoops!) All recognizable characters and trademarks belong to their respective owners (Stephenie Meyer, JetBlue, etc.) . I own nothing and I am making no money off of this story. **

**Chapter 2- Coincidences **

"_JetBlue Flight 746 to Boston Logan- Now boarding rows 15 and up- JetBlue Flight 746 to Boston Logan"_

Pulling my boarding pass out of my coat pocket, I unfolded it and saw I was in seat 16C. An aisle seat. I took a deep breath, stood up, and got in line to board the plane, wondering whether I would be able to see her from where I sat this time. Walking down the aisle of the plane I noticed her sitting in the row behind me, across the aisle. She would be able to see me, and I wouldn't be able to watch her quite as discreetly as before.

The flight served dinner, and a few hours later, they came down the aisle with the special meals. "Vegetarian for an Edward Cullen. Vegetarian for an Isabella Swan." I raised my hand.

"Edward Cullen, here." I heard Isabella's sharp intake of breath as the flight attendant said my name, and in my peripheral vision, saw her eyes widen as I indicated where I was. So she _was _thinking about me! No, she was probably just surprised that I was on the second flight as well. And we were both vegetarian too.

"Vegetarian for an Isabella Swan?" The flight attendant was getting a bit impatient.

"Oh! Here, sorry about that." She bit her lip and blushed in embarrassment. She was very cute when she was embarrassed.

I opened up my meal and looked inside it. Some dubious-looking bread, with plastic cheese, a small salad, a cup of fruit, and some rice and beans. Not too bad, seeing as it was airplane food. Looking over my shoulder, I watched as Isabella tried to tempt Abra with some grapes, and a bit of bread. It did not seem that she was being successful. I smiled. Even if Isabella wasn't the baby's mother, she was certainly very good with kids.

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An hour later meals had been served, eaten and taken away, and I had gone back to watching Isabella and Abra, when Abra suddenly pointed in my direction.

"Niss man!" she said as she pointed towards me.

Isabella saw me looking and smiled. "Yes, he is a nice man. He returned your whale. His name is Edward. Can you say Edward Abra?"

"Eddard" She gave me a grin with what looked like about 10 teeth. She then went back to playing with her toys.

I could certainly discern a resemblance between Abra and Isabella. Their smiles were very alike, and their hair almost the same color, though Isabella could probably sit on the end of hers, and Abra's curls barely brushed her shoulders.

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Watching Isabella and Abra made the 5-hour flight pass much more quickly than it ever had before. Sooner than I thought possible we were landing in Boston, and I checked my phone to see if my sister Alice would be picking me up. She had left a message, and would not be.

I picked up my larger suitcase from baggage claim, and walked out to the curb. August in Boston was sweltering, but having been in Hawaii with my brother for the past month, I was used to heat.

I hailed a taxi, and my eyes widened as I got in and noticed something in the rear view mirror. Isabella Swan was hailing the taxi right behind me. The taxi driver jumped into the front seat, interrupting my thoughts. "Where'd you like to go, sir?"

"Harvard Yard, please"

"You a student?'

"Yes, Medical School."

"Gonna be a doctor?"

"Yes."

The driver realized I wasn't very interested in talking and let the conversation drop. I watched as the taxi Isabella was in followed us. Was she tailing me, or was she a student at Harvard too? Tailing me didn't seem like something she would do, even with my limited knowledge of her personality. But her being on two flights in a row and our going to the same university was just a few too many coincidences for me to believe in.

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Twenty minutes later, two taxis stopped on Mass Ave, near Harvard Square.

"Here y'are sir." Announced the taxi driver, and went to the back to get out my suitcases. He set them on the sidewalk and I paid, smiling as he drove off, waving.

Isabella had just gotten out of the taxi behind me, and I watched as she picked up her stuff, and walked over to the intersection of Mass Ave and Brattle Street to cross. She had just labeled herself as someone who wasn't from Boston. I waited for a break in the traffic, and ran across, holding a suitcase in each hand. I watched from the other side of the street as she waited for the walk signal, and then crossed. At that point, I would have bet money on the fact that she was from the west coast. I mean, _waiting _for the_ walk signal_! She might just have been taking precautions because she had the baby with her, but I didn't think so.

I walked across the Yard and down the path to my dorm, stopping every once in a while to greet friends I hadn't seen since May. Ten minutes later, I strolled into the dormitory lobby, and pressed the elevator button. The door of the elevator on the left opened, and just then Isabella Swan rushed through the lobby doors. "Hold the door, please!" The elevators here were notoriously slow, and I nodded and stuck an arm out to keep the doors from closing. With my other arm, I moved my suitcases out of the way so hers would fit.

She hurried in, set down her suitcases and rummaged through her bag for something, probably the key to her room. "Third floor please" she said, without looking up. I pressed the '3' button and the '5' button- my floor, and watched her, waiting for her to look up. As the elevator lurched upwards she did, and gasped.

"Cullen. Edward Cullen." She said.

"Isabella Swan." I smiled back at her. "Do you stay here too?"

"I do." she answered. "I'm studying epidemiology. You?"

"I'm hoping to be a pediatrician, or work in a hospital, like my dad."

"Carlisle Cullen" she breathed. "You're _his _son?"

"Yeah. I am." I grinned, "How do you know him?"

She smiled back at me. "Well, he's _famous. _And anyway, he did a workshop here last year."

I nodded. "For grad students though. Wait, you're a _grad _student."

"Well, yeah, I'm staying here in the _grad _dorm, aren't I?" She rolled her eyes good-naturedly"

I laughed, "Well, yeah, I guess"

The elevator ground to a stop and pinged. She looked up at the sign, which flashed '3". The doors opened. "Well, I guess this is my floor! See you around."

"See you." The doors closed and I waved, knowing she wouldn't see it.

So she knew who I was, I knew a little more about her. I was now convinced that Abra had to be her daughter. Why else would the little girl be staying with her in her dorm? And she was a graduate student too. Looking hardly twenty. I shook my head. I hoped I _would _see her around.

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**A/N: Here's my second chapter! Thank you to all of you who reviewed. My computer is being picky, and will not let me reply personally to your feedback, but virtual snowmen made of the snow in my front yard go to HighOnLife, nisilein, Curious Butterfly, becca, ObessiveReader09, Makoto-Gerou, and summerperidot. This is the most reviews I've ever gotten for any of my stories, and you all have made my day! Keep it up!!! **

**If you are more familiar with the Boston Metro Area than I am (I don't live there) please feel free to correct me on any mistakes I make. I am doing my best to make this story accurate. For those of you who aren't so familiar with the area, Mass Ave the Boston nickname for Massachusetts Avenue. **


	3. Sunset Over the Yard

**A/N: I feel I ought to do a chapter in Bella's perspective because I would like to explore her background and what she is thinking about the events so far. **

**Disclaimer: Again, I do not own any recognizable characters, settings, or plot elements; everything Twilight related belongs to Stephenie Meyer. **

**Chapter 3- Sunset over the Yard**

Today had been a long day, and it wasn't over yet. I had to put Abra to bed, unpack, e-mail the employment office, call Abra's daycare, and look into what books I would need for the coming semester, and which ones I could get from the library or buy used.

I set the suitcases down inside of our small room, which, fortunately, having been my room last year, still held my meager furnishings. A cot with a blanket and pillow and a crib took up one corner, and a desk and chair took up another. A table sat in the middle of the room, and a bookshelf, dresser, counter, and sink took up the remaining space. The sun was going down over the Yard. I fed Abra and got her ready for bed. She smiled up at me from her crib as I sat at my desk and got out my laptop to start all of the things I had to do.

I looked up the books I needed for the semester's courses. There were far too many than I thought any professor could possibly cover in a four-month time period. And so few of them were available at the used bookstore or the library. That's where the employment office would come in- hopefully, at least. The slots fill up quickly, and so that's why I'm e-mailing in my application tonight. So much work to do. So very much work that I almost forget up about _him. _

I'm lying down in bed finally relaxing after seemingly the longest day of life. Almost every day of the last eighteen months has been that way. Oh Abra. It's not that I don't love my daughter. It's just that most mothers have a father to share the burden with. And with Abra it's only me. Her father- I don't even know his name.

But, Edward Cullen. He could never someone like me. Even though it seems like he does. After that first meeting, the first flight, I thought it would be okay, he would be gone, and I would never see him again. But then, the second flight, the taxi ride, the elevator. He lives just two floors above me, and yet, here I am, hoping to never see him again. I can't risk an attachment, and I here I go, I already have.

So much to deal with, classes, Harvard medical school, work, I need money for food, for books, for Abra's daycare, and through it all keep up my grades and keep my scholarship. And me, I'm only eighteen. Expected to keep up with all those kids, five years older, no kid, parents who love them, money. Everything.

Oh, Abra.

My life.

Our life.

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The sun comes up much too early. Pulling as much out of the suitcases as I can, putting it all away. Filling the meager room with my meager personalization, meager possessions.

Abra is awake, wanting food, so it's off to daycare. I haven't got any food. A bag in one hand and a daughter in the other, walking across the Yard, deserted in the six thirty light to the Harvard subway station. Down the flights of steps to the turnstile, in goes the fare. Thank goodness Abra's young enough to ride free.

Riding the T, sitting in an empty subway car for the few minutes it takes to get from Harvard, the two stops to the Davis Square station. Climbing up the stairs, and carrying Abra up the last flight. After, an eighteen-month-old can only manage so many stairs. Down Holland Street, cross Broadway at Teele Square, down the road a bit, and then up the granite steps to Abra's daycare.

Angela's grin lights up my day as she welcomes Abra into her arms, and invites me up the stairs to the kitchen for breakfast. "It's nice to see you again Bella dear. How was Hawaii?"

"Hawaii was beautiful and the courses were great." I smile. "And it's nice to have real food. Thank you so much for your help Angela."

"Oh no. My pleasure. Now get off to your classes." She motions me out the door, and hands me a piece of toast. "See you this evening."

Angela was my life support. She fed both of us breakfast every morning, and fed Abra dinner each evening before she left, while not charging me any more than any of the families whose children she cared for. She and her husband Ben were Abra's second parents. I was comforted to know where she was all day while I was in classes.

Walking back down the street to the Davis Square T station, I contemplated Edward. The son of a millionaire doctor father, and a famous architect mother, I wondered what he would think if he knew Abra was my daughter. If he knew all of the things that had gone on in my short life. If he knew exactly how short my life was. I fingered my necklace; there was nothing I could do about that now. I could only put my best foot forward and hope he either liked me for who I was, or ignored me completely.

My first class wasn't until nine, so I visited the employment office to make sure they had received my application. They had, and I walked around campus for a while until a quarter until nine. A few minutes later I sat down in the classroom. The middle-aged female professor was handing out a set of beat up books.

"Free books?" I wondered aloud.

"It's your lucky day." She turned around to grin at me.

I smiled back and began paging through the book. This class was one of the ones I had been looking forward to taking, a study of highly infectious diseases, and why they spread so quickly and easily. My favorite part of the study of epidemiology. And the teacher seemed like she would be nice. It was a great relief to have a teacher who actually cared a little bit, especially in this unfamiliar town, with these unfamiliar people, in this huge town.

I moved through the day of classes, looking out for Cullen, but only seeing him in one course, Advanced Medical Spanish, which I was taking in case I needed to work with epidemiologists from other countries. We did not acknowledge each other, and I was not even sure he had noticed me, thought he probably had. Who knew how often he had been watching me without my noticing.

_No. Forget him, Bella. _You are doing just fine without him, I told myself. Even though I knew inside myself that I really was not doing quite as fine as it might look from an outside view.

After a long day of classes, I took along the Charles River to relax before I went to the used bookstore and the school library with my book list.

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**A/N: 'T' is Boston slang for the subway. I hope that gave a little bit of insight into Bella's character. I don't know whether the next chapter will be in Bella or Edward's perspective. I have the framework of this story laid out in my head, but suggestions are always welcomed! Thank you to those of you who read, and to TwilightLoVeR12EDWARD, HarrPotterandTwilightGirl257, and nisilein, who reviewed!! Keep it up everyone!! **


	4. Tutoring

**A/N: Another chapter in Bella's point of view, for the passage of time. **

**Chapter 4- Tutoring**

Mornings, afternoons, in classes or studying in the library, evenings spent with Abra, nights spent as a security guard in the library, and over and over again.

The alarm clock goes off at six fifteen sharp, but I'm already up. I reach out from the desk to turn it off, and Abra wakes. I hand her a toy and finish the document I'm typing. I press print, close the laptop, pick up Abra, and walk over to the library to pick up the flyers I printed.

I walk in and pick up the top sheet on the printer. My flyers. I pin one up on the bulletin board in the entrance. Someone comes up behind me.

"Isabella Swan?" His voice rings a bell, but I can't put a name on it.

"It's Bella. Who- Oh. Edward Cullen." It's him. I wonder what he is doing in the library before anyone is up, so I ask.

"Oh. I'm- err- well-" He sighs. "I'm studying."

"So early? You'll never get anything done."

He shrugs. "I'm- I- I'm failing. Three classes. What's the flyer for?"

I step out of the way so he can read it himself.

"Tutoring." He rips the first little slip off the bottom of the paper. "I'll be contacting about this." Abra has fallen asleep on my shoulder, and he pats her head.

I put up flyers around campus until Abra wakes up again, and I've run out, and then I take her daycare.

Finally I'm back in my room, I sit down at my desk, open my laptop and check my email. '**Hi Bella- One New Message'. **

From: 

To: 

RE: Tutoring

_Hi,_

_This is Edward Cullen. I'm need help in three classes, Advanced Medical Spanish, Modern Infectious Diseases, and Rare Genetic Defects in Pediatrics. When do you have available once a week? I'm pretty flexible, and most times would work for me. _

_Edward Cullen_

I click 'Reply'.

From: 

To: 

RE: Tutoring

_Hello,_

_I'm pretty sure I can be of help to you in Advanced Medical Spanish, which I am taking, and Modern Infectious Diseases, which I took last year. Rare Genetic Defects in Pediatrics I do not know much about, but I will do my best to help. I'm free Tuesday nights and Sunday nights, after eight. Will those work for you? Where would you like to meet?_

_Bella Swan_

I turned the computer off and headed off to my first class of the morning.

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From: 

To: 

RE: Tutoring

_Hi,_

_Tuesday nights after eight would work for me. I figured that you could come up to my room or I could come down to yours. Would that be all right with you?_

_Edward Cullen_

--

From: 

To: 

RE: Tutoring

_Hello, _

_I would be more comfortable tutoring in the library, if that would be all right with you. Would you like to start next Tuesday?_

_Bella Swan_

--

From: 

To: 

RE: Tutoring

_The library would be okay, I guess. Next Tuesday would be lovely. _

_See you then,_

_Edward._

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So here it was. Tuesday, October 7th, 2008. 7:55 PM, Eastern Daylight Time. I was standing at the entrance of the library, with my laptop, and a pencil in my hand. Abra was at daycare, with Angela's 14-year-old daughter, Leah, babysitting.

Edward Cullen walked in at 8:00 on the dot, just as I had expected. He seemed as though he was the sort of person who would always be on time. We walked over to an empty table and sat down on opposite sides. He dropped three books on the table with a _thump_.

"So…?"

He shrugged. "I wasn't really this whole bit on the cell structure of the disease, and I thought you could help?"

I nodded, and began explaining.

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Tuesday, October 7th, 2008. 10:00 PM, Eastern Daylight Time. It was very dark when I exited the library, bidding goodbye to Edward, who had shown himself to be a promising student, despite his failing grades. Medical Spanish was his worst subject, he had only taken Spanish in high school, and was no where near as fluent in the language as I was, having lived in a Spanish-speaking household from when I was five until I was nine. Edward was, however, a hard worker, and I had confidence that he would progress.

Ten minutes later I was standing outside Angela's door, knocking quietly. Leah answered, holding Abra on her hip, and I followed her upstairs. I tried to pay her, but she refused to take any money, insisting that I keep it, and telling me I needed it, and anyway, she would count the two hours for community service. I eventually backed down at her adamancy, and nodded to Angela on my way out.

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A month later, and my student was passing all of his classes, and told me he understood everything much better. We had both improved our Spanish, I had noticed his vocabulary growing, and I was getting better and better at explaining things to him.

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Tuesday, November 4th 2008, 8:00 PM, Eastern Standard Time. We met in the library as per usual that night and he dropped his books on the table with the _thump _that he knew annoyed me. I rolled my eyes and sat down.

"Edward, I- I was wondering whether you think you still need my tutoring."

His eyes widened. "Of course I still need your tutoring! And anyway, I'm only just getting to know you."

I smiled. "Okay. Just wondering." And our tutoring session went on as usual.

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Angela answered the door that night, and I moved quickly inside, grateful for the warm relief from the biting November cold of Boston.

"Looks like snow." Angela observed, looking out the window.

"Huh?"

"I said it looks like snow!" She looked at me. "And aren't you ever lost in your thoughts. What aren't you telling me?"

"Well, there's this guy-"

"A guy?" She raised her eyebrows, and beckoned me up the stairs pointing to the living room couch. "Sit and spill."

"But, Abra!" I protested.

"Leah can take care of her. Now spill."

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**A/N: No Boston slang this time I don't think… I'm not quite satisfied with this chapter, but it will have to do. Next chapter will be in Edward's point of view, so this is my evil-authoress cliffie!! *queue up the wicked witch cackles here* Anyway, review all you people!!! Thanks to xxxxParvati-Patilxxxx who was the **_**only reviewer of my third chapter!!! **_**Now review you ungrateful people, or I shall abandon this story altogether!!**


	5. An Invitaton

**A/N: I don't know about all of you, but here in my hometown, we are having a very white Christmas. It's been snowing on top of the foot of snow we already have here, and it usually snows up to an inch, once or twice a winter here. So a very happy Christmas and Hannukah to you all, here is my present to you!**

**Disclaimer: Again, I do not own any recognizable characters, settings, or plot elements; everything Twilight related belongs to Stephenie Meyer. **

**Chapter 5- An Invitation**

I'm sitting in my fifth floor dorm room, typing a paper on my laptop, when my phone rings. It's my mother.

"Hi mom."

"Hello dearest! Are you coming up for Thanksgiving?"

"If at all possible, I wouldn't miss dad's pies for anything!"

"Alice will be coming up as well, you two can come up together, and Emmett will come from Hawaii. How was Hawaii anyway?"

"We had a great time, I'm actually thinking about moving there…"

"But, Edward! It's so far away! I would-"

"Only kidding Mom, I promise. Not my climate anyway. I would miss the snow."

She laughs, relieved. "So I'll expect you up on the 25th?"

"Yeah, around then."

"It'll be good to see you. Oh? What's that Carlisle? One second, Carlisle's trying to tell me something, and his sign language isn't very good. Oh yes! They sent your progress report yesterday!"

"A progress report!? I'm a graduate student for heaven's sake!! What is this, middle school?"

"It's all right dear, you're doing so well in your classes! I'm so proud of you. See you soon dear!"

"Bye mom."

"Bye Edward."

I closed the phone and breathed a sigh of relief. _Thank goodness for Bella and her amazing tutoring,_ I thought, _if it weren't for her I would have been toast. _

_Bella, _I thought, _Thanksgiving. I wonder whether she has anywhere to go? Maybe I should invite her up with us. _

I opened my phone and called my mom back.

"Hello?"

"Edward! Why are you calling back so soon?"

"Mom, I was wondering whether I could invite a friend or two up for Thanksgiving?"

"Oh, of course, Edward! You didn't even need to ask."

"Okay, thanks Mom. I'll call again if she accepts, just to let you know."

"She?"

"Oh, shut up Mom. Don't tell Emmett."

"I won't."

"Bye Mom."

"Bye dear."

Bella, coming over on Thanksgiving. I would ask her at our next tutoring session, next Tuesday. I could hardly wait.

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Tuesday, November 11th, 2008. It was somewhere around eight in the evening. I walked into the library and over to the table where she sat, reading. I dropped my books in front of my chair and sat down.

"So what are you reading?"

"Oh, this, it's called Wicked. It's a novel about the Wicked Witch of the West, you know, from the Wizard of Oz, before she was wicked. It's one of my favorites."  
I nodded. "I've heard of it. I think my sister Alice is a fan of it."

"I think a lot of people are, especially because there's a musical version of it on Broadway."

I took a deep breath and asked. "Bella? Do you have plans for Thanksgiving?"

She looked a little bit frightened. "No. Not any firm ones."

"I was wondering, well, if you would like to come up to my parent's house in New Hampshire for Thanksgiving."

"Umm…" She bit her lip. "Yeah, that would be okay I guess. I'd just have to work out something with Abra's daycare so she could stay there for a day."

"Oh no, bring Abra with you! My mom will love her." I smiled, thinking how Esme would react to a baby.

She shook her head. "I wouldn't want to impose on anyone."

I grinned. "Don't worry, you wouldn't be imposing on anyone."

She nodded. "Okay. I'll come. So what do we need to work on today?"

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The next morning I opened up my email, and noticed one from Bella.

_From: _

_To: _

_RE: Thanksgiving_

_Hi,_

_It's Bella. I'd love to come up for Thanksgiving, but I really don't have any way to get up to New Hampshire. _

_Sorry,_

_Bella_

I hit Reply.

_From: _

_To: _

_RE: Thanksgiving_

_Hello, _

_My sister Alice is at MIT, and she's driving me up two days before, on the 25__th__. You and Abra are welcome to join us, just bring a car seat for Abra. We don't have any. :D_

_Edward_

A few minutes later my computer beeped as a reply came back.

_From: _

_To: _

_RE: Thanksgiving_

_That would be great. When are you planning on coming back down? I wouldn't want to impose on your family for more than a few days._

_Thanks so much,_

_Bella_

I immediately sent back a reply.

_From: _

_To: _

_RE: Thanksgiving_

_We were planning on driving back down on Sunday, which is the 30__th__. I will clear it with my mother, but nobody will mind if you stay with us. _

_Edward_

Her reply came back as quickly as mine had been sent.

_From: _

_To: _

_RE: Thanksgiving_

_If you are sure your mother and father will not mind my staying for so long, I will. Thank you so much for giving me a way to spend my Thanksgiving. One last thing. Could you tell your mother that I am vegetarian? She doesn't need to make a meat substitute for me, but some food without meat in it would be nice._

_Bella _

I decided to send one last reply, and then call my mom.

_From: _

_To: _

_RE: Thanksgiving_

_Bella,_

_Both my sister and I are vegetarian as well, so there will be no shortage of vegetarian food. I will, however, make sure to alert my mother to make extra for you. Is Abra vegetarian too, or does she eat turkey?  
Edward_

I waited for her reply.

_From: _

_To: _

_RE: Thanksgiving_

_No, Abra eats turkey, but I will bring some food I know she will eat, just in case she gets uncomfortable, and refuses to eat anything. _

_Again, thanks so much._

_Bella_

One last, last reply.

_From: _

_To: _

_RE: Thanksgiving_

_Good to know. I'm going to call my mom now. _

_See you!_

_Edward_

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"Hi, Mom? Yeah, it's Edward."

"Is your friend coming?"

"Yeah, she's going to come up with Alice and me."

"Make sure to call Alice about that."

"I will, don't worry Mom!"

"Anything else dear?"

"Yeah. My friend, her name's Bella, she's vegetarian. And-"

"All you vegetarian people are crazy." She laughed, joking with me.

"Mom! And she's bringing her daughter."

My mom's voice was suddenly serious.

"Her daughter?"

"Yes. She's 20 months old."

"Okay. We'll get some food for her. You'll have to talk to me about this later. Don't think you're getting off the hook."

"I know Mom, bye."

"Bye Edward."

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**A/N: Uh oh, Esme's getting suspicious. Next chapter will be Bella's perspective, and her chat with Angela. **

**MIT is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the best schools in the US (along with Harvard). It is right next to Harvard, on the banks of the Charles River, in Cambridge. I'm quite proud of myself for getting out a chapter on Christmas Day, so be nice!!**

**I would also like to thank my readers, and mention all of my reviewers by name! Thanks to Zoe, xxxxParvati-Patilxxxx, JiggyT, and alphito!!**


	6. An Explanation

**A/N: Bella's perspective- her chat with Angela, and her thoughts on Edward's invitation. **

**Chapter 6- An Explanation**

_She looked at me. "And aren't you ever lost in your thoughts. What aren't you telling me?"_

_"Well, there's this guy-"_

_"A guy?" She raised her eyebrows, and beckoned me up the stairs pointing to the living room couch. "Sit and spill."_

_"But, Abra!" I protested. _

_"Leah can take care of her. Now spill."_

I sat down, and began. "Well, last August, when I was taking the plane back from my summer courses in Hawaii, we were sitting in the airport in Honolulu, and Abra was playing with her whale."

Angela nodded, knowing it was Abra's favorite toy.

"I was looking around, just watching all the different people coming and going. A stupid idea, because I wasn't paying attention to Abra. Now, as you've probably noticed, over the summer, Abra learned to throw."

Angela frowned at this. She had noticed.

"So, she threw whale, but I didn't see where it had gone. I looked around, but I couldn't find it, and then they gave the first call, so I had to get on the plane, seeing as Abra needs extra time getting settled, and all. I had no idea where her whale had gone, and I knew I had no time to look for it, and I couldn't delay the flight. So I got on the plane, knowing Abra would soon be in tears, and that there was nothing I could do about it.

"I got most to my seat, but I couldn't get my suitcase up into the overhead compartment, it was out of my reach, and I was holding Abra. After a couple of people yelled at me, I just got out of the way, and waited until someone who would help me came along. And someone did. This very cute guy with bronze-ish hair, and green eyes came along and put my suitcase up in the bin easily, as if it weighed nothing. And the suitcase had all of my textbooks in it. I was getting tired just dragging it on its wheels!"

Angela raised her eyebrows. "So was this he?"

"I'm getting to it! Just be patient. Where was I?"

"He lifted up your suitcase." Angela supplied.

"Oh yes. He lifted up my suitcase and put it in the bin, and I'm thanking him and sitting down, and he walks into the row a little bit, to let people go by down the aisle. I'm sitting in the window seat. He fishes around in his coat pocket, pulls out Abra's whale, and asks if it might belong to me. I thank him profusely, and ask his name. He tells me and then goes to his seat. I guess he must have gotten where I was sitting from the flight attendant at the desk."

Angela interrupts. "Well? What was his name?"

"Edward Cullen."

"But that couldn't have been the last you saw of him?"

"It wasn't this whole thing is pretty crazy. So, I'm sitting on the plane, knowing he's sitting in the row behind me, and is probably watching me. And after the plane lands in Seattle, and everyone gets off, I lose sight of him. I got a little lost, and almost got stuck in one of the subway trains they have there, and I didn't seem him again until Abra pointed him out, on our flight into Logan."

Angela grins. "Go Abra!"

"Yeah. So she points to a man in the aisle seat in the row across and in front of us and says 'Nice man', which is what I called him to her when I didn't know his name. He turned around and saw me, while I explained her that his name was Edward. And I watched him for the rest of the plane ride. Since we had been on the same two planes from Hawaii to Boston, I figured that that coincidence was enough, and I would never see him again."

"But you were wrong of course."

"Of course. I walked out to the curb to hail a taxi, and there he was hailing a taxi right in front of me. I directed the taxi to Harvard Yard, and chatted with the taxi driver for a bit. Then, I noticed we were following the taxi Edward Cullen was in. I asked the taxi driver why we were following them, and he told me that they must be going to Harvard Yard as well, and couldn't I tell that we were going there. I looked around, and figured out where we were, told him I _could _and shut up."

"Was that it?"

"No. That wasn't it. I pick up my room key and go across campus to my dorm. When I get there, there's a guy in the elevator, and I ask him to hold the door, because the elevators are so notoriously slow. He does, and I get in, and look up, and it's him."

"No."

"It was. So we talked, and I found out that he was the son of Carlisle and Esme Cullen. Does that ring a bell?"

"Matter of fact, it does. Who are they?'

"His parents. Kidding, well, they are his parents, but Carlisle owns and runs a number of hospitals around the country that provide care to those who can't afford it, especially people with serious illnesses, and research cures for all sorts of things, cancer and all sorts of stuff."

"How does he support it?"

"Oh he has a foundation and he gets grants and rich people leave lots of money to him in their wills and everything. And Esme Cullen is a world famous architect. She's designed all of Carlisle's hospitals, and a load of other important buildings as well."

"So they're rich."

"Yeah very."

"The perfect boyfriend for you! Rich, polite, is he smart?"

"I'm getting to that. So it turns out he lives on the fifth floor."

"Is that where all the big rooms are?"

"Yeah, there and the sixth. But anyway, next time we meet, I'm in the library, putting up flyers advertising myself as a tutor. He takes one, and e-mails me, and we started meeting every Tuesday night. It turned out he was failing three of his classes, and really needed help."

"So he isn't smart?"

"No he is, he just wasn't understanding it very well. So yeah, that's the Tuesday night thing. I've been tutoring him for a month now, and he's passing all of his classes. He says it's all thanks to me, but I think he just needed some motivation."

"You give yourself too little credit, girl. Now get your daughter, and go on home. It's late. And remember, you can come talk to me any time."

"Except three in the morning."

She grinned. "Except three in the morning, unless it's very important."

I nodded, and went to find Leah.

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**A/N: This chapter turned out to be a lot longer than I expected, and so next chapter will be Bella's thoughts on the Thanksgiving invitation and the drive up. I would like to thank my readers, and all of my amazing reviewers!! Zimtsterne (that's the German Christmas cookies my mother and I made this afternoon) go to crystal-darkness-331, Luinvinial, hhawkes, GrilWithoutAName, trumidinte, and theadventurer. **

**Answers to a couple questions people had:**

_**What is Esme thinking about this?  
**_**You'll probably find out in Chapter 8 or 9. Be patient, and keep reading!**

_**Did you say that Bella didn't know Abra's dad's name?**_

**I did. I'm keeping that deliberately vague, but the truth will come to light. (Oooh. Dramatic me. :D)**

_**How did you come up with the name Abra?**_

**I stole it. No, there were two stage managers at one of my dance performances, and the nice one was Abra. I named the baby in my story that, when the story was still in my head, and not yet a twilight fanfiction. The name stuck. It means 'mother of nations' in Hebrew, but I just thought it was pretty. **

**Keep reading and reviewing, and thank you!!! I love you all!! **


	7. Thoughts on Thanksgiving

**A/N: Bella's thoughts on Thanksgiving, and probably the drive up to NH as well. **

**Chapter 7- Thoughts on Thanksgiving**

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008. 12:00 PM, Eastern Standard Time

Yesterday, Edward had asked me if I wanted to come up to his parents house for Thanksgiving. I had naturally accepted, as it was a choice between that and eating sandwiches and studying in my dorm room. We had arraigned for transportation and food via e-mail, and he had called his mother to tell her I was coming. It seemed as though it would all work out perfectly, but I was worried.

I was going to be staying at their house for more than four days. Would his family like me? What would they think of the fact that I was in college, and had a daughter? Would they figure out that I was only eighteen, six years younger than the normal girl in her second year of grad school? Would they ask about my family? Would they like Abra? Would Abra behave herself? What should I bring?

So many questions. And yet, it was still almost two weeks before we drove up! How many more questions could I think of in thirteen days? I sat down at my desk and began to study, to take my mind off of Thanksgiving.

The bell in the clock tower tolled twelve thirty. I shut my laptop, picked it up, grabbed my books and set off to my next class. I would have to worry some other time. Right now, it was time for _Epidemics and Pandemics- A Study of Infections Diseases in History_.

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Monday. November 24th, 2008, 10 PM, Eastern Standard Time.

I locked my dorm room door, and put the money Edward had paid me earlier in my pocket. We had rescheduled the tutoring session to today, because of tomorrow's trip. I zipped up my rain coat, it hadn't stopped pouring all day, and set out for the grocery store, taking the stairs because both elevators had stopped working,

Half an hour later, I was back, soaked to the bone, and holding two paper shopping bags. I set them on the floor of the room, and finished packing up everything for the next day. I set the suitcase I had packed for the two of us by the door, and went to bed.

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The next day, I woke up around seven, later than usual, and took Abra over to Angela's house to pick up her car seat. Angela answered the door.

"Bella, you're soaked! Come in!"

"Hi Angela."

"Hi Bella. When are you leaving?"

"Soon. I need Abra's car seat."

"Okay. One second. Have some breakfast." Angela motioned me into the kitchen, and gave me a piece of toast and a banana. She went off to find Abra's car seat, and I cut up the banana into little pieces for Abra.

A few minutes later Angela returned, with Abra's car seat in one hand, and her traveling blanket in the other. I smile. "Thanks Angela. You're a godsend."

"No problem. You get going, and don't come back until you've had some fun, okay?"

"I'll try."

"Bye Bella. Bye Abra."

"Bye Angela."

"Bye 'Gela." Abra gives a little wave.

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Fifteen minutes later, we were home in our dorm room, and soaked again. I put our stuff down, and moved around the room, packing up small things, toothbrushes, books, Abra's whale, and my ID card.

It was a few minutes after eight; we had agreed to meet at a quarter after eight, in the lobby of our dorm building. I picked up my suitcase and took Abra's hand, and together we walked down the hall. I looked longingly at the elevator, but walked past. Abra stopped, however. She turned and pointed. "Go on the levator!" She looked up at me. "Levator?"

"No Abra, the elevator isn't working."

"Levator broken?"

"Yes, the elevator is broken."

"No levator." She said sadly, and turned around. We began walking towards the stairs again.

"Abra, can you walk down the stairs by yourself? I need to carry the suitcase and your car seat."

"Yes, mommy."

She took the stairs slowly, and I carried the suitcase down. At the end of each flight, I would wait and a minute later, Abra would stand next to me and give a big smile.

We got down to the lobby a few minutes late, and Edward was already standing, with a suitcase sitting next to him. He grinned. "You know, the elevators are working now."

"You've got to be kidding. I just carried this suitcase and Abra's car seat down those three flights of stairs, and made Abra walk down, and I could have taken the elevator"

He shrugged. Abra ran up behind and hugged my leg, looking up at Edward until she recognized. She pointed. "Niss man! Hi Eddard!"

His face broke into a big smile, as he looked down at her. "You remembered my name!" He looked up at me. "Or were you practicing with her?"

I held my hands up. "No practice, I promise. She's been getting better and better at talking lately. She remembered all by herself."

He nodded. "Now I feel pathetic, because I've forgotten her name, and she's remembered mine. What's your name?" He said, looking to her.

She looked up at him. "'M Abra."

He nodded. "Abra, that's right, I remember now." Just then, a girl walked in. Edward turned when she called his name. "Alice! This is Bella, and this is Abra. Bella, Abra, this is my sister Alice."

She nodded to me, and then as an afterthought, nodded to Abra as well. Abra nodded back seriously, looking very adult.

I gave a little wave. "Hi. Bella."

She smiled. "Okay, follow me, we have to get going if we want to be there when we're expected."

Alice was short, shorter than me, and I thought I was short. To me she looked only about 5 feet tall. She had short, dark brown hair that spiked all around her face. She led us out to a small blue car parked on Mass Ave. It was obviously very fancy, and well cared-for, even though I knew nothing about cars.

Alice stopped, and pressed a button on the car key that opened the trunk. Edward picked up the suitcases and shuffled them around to fit all three in. Alice looked at me. "I hope you don't mind sitting in the back with Abra? Edward can't fit his legs back there very well."

I shook my head. "No, I don't mind at all."

She smiled. "Thank goodness. I couldn't have everyone arguing all the way there!"

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**A/N: So there's that chapter. This turned out longer than I expected as well. Next chapter will be the drive up to New Hampshire, and the chapter after that will be Thanksgiving dinner. I will probably switch to Edward's point of view for Chapter 8. Thanks to all of my readers, and to hhawkes, xxxxParvati-Patilxxxx, and Luinvinial for their reviews! **

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	8. Meetings

**A/N: The drive up to New Hampshire. Edward's point of view. **

**Chapter 8- Meetings**

We got into the car, and Bella strapped Abra in, giving her her whale to play with. We had gotten on I-93, when Alice began talking.

"So Bella, you're in grad school at Harvard?"

"Yes. I went did my undergrad work at Columbia, in New York."

"And how many semesters have you done?"

"In credits, I just began my fifth, but this is the middle of my fourth, time-wise.

Alice nodded. "So you're twenty-four, I'm guessing?"

I heard Bella hesitate. "Well- yeah." I looked back at her, but she was staring out the window. A little too hard.

"Really?" I asked. "You hardly look it."

"Well- no. I'm not twenty four." I turned to look at her again, and she was biting her lip in the adorable way she had. I turned back around, and saw Alice glance at her in the rearview mirror.

"So how old are you?" I had to know.

"I'm- do I have to say?"

Alice looked over at me and shook her head. 'Don't make her' She mouthed.

Annoyed, I gave her a dirty look, and turned toward my window.

Alice answered for me. "You don't have to say if you don't want to. How old is Abra?"

"She's twenty months old."

"How much is she talking?"

"A lot. She loves to talk. She's just being shy right now, because she doesn't know you." A few minutes later. "Are you older or younger than Edward?"

"He's younger than me. Emmett is the oldest. He'll be there tomorrow, along with Rosalie, his girlfriend. Jasper, that is, my boyfriend, will be up sometime today or tomorrow, whenever he gets off work. So you'll meet everyone."  
I can hear Bella's smile in her voice. "Good!"

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The highway sign approaches, announcing that Alton and Gilmanton are at the next exit. We've been in the car for more than two hours, and the traffic has been awful. Finally, we are off the highway, and driving down the road to my parent's house. I twist around in my seat to look at Bella. She's looking around, trying to see both sides of the road, ahead of us, and behind us all at once. Needless to say, she is failing spectacularly.

"It's so beautiful here."

"Haven't you ever been to New Hampshire before?" Asks Alice.

"Never."

"Well, then you're in for a treat."

And then five minutes later. "Here we are!" We have turned on a small two-lane dirt road, and then into a gravel driveway in front of the house, which sits right on the intersection of the main road and the dirt side road.

I try and look at my parent's house as though I've never seen it before. It's large and red, with a wing built off to the side. It's more than 200 years old, having been built in 1802, by the brother of one of my father's ancestors. I get out, and walk around the car, pulling the suitcases out of the trunk. Alice takes her own, and when Bella comes to get hers, I shake my head, and pick it up myself.

She goes back into the car to un-strap Abra, who looks very asleep. I remember thinking how very pretty she was, when I first met her, but I haven't thought about it much since. Her hair is mostly up in a big bun behind her head, and I've almost forgotten how long it was, in the braid down her back, that day in the airport. Plural I guess, airports. Today it's in a low ponytail, and full of big curls, as it spreads out across her back. She has gotten Abra out, and now she's standing outside the car door, looking at me.

"You didn't need to wait, you know." She says.

"Oh, no. It's all right." I realize I'm staring, and turn to go inside. "Come on."

"Do I need get the car seat out of Alice's car?"

"No, of course not! Come on, now."

I lead her inside, Abra on her hip, just waking up, and open the door.

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The door opens, and Esme turns around from the counter, setting down whatever delicacy she is making for tomorrow. "Edward!" She runs over to hug me. "And this must be your friend?" She looks Bella up and down.

"Mom, this is my friend, Bella, and her daughter Abra."

"Hi." Bella looks around.

Just then, my dad, Carlisle, walks in. "Edward!" He comes over to give me a hug. He then turns to Bella, and smiles.

She introduces herself, before I can get a word in. "I'm Bella, a friend of Edward's, and this is Abra." She leaves off the fact that Abra is her daughter.

Carlisle nods politely. "Well, make yourself at home. Any friend of Edward's is a friend of all of us. We trust in his good taste." He grins.

Bella smiles. "Thank you." She turns to Esme. "Is there somewhere I can set Abra down to play? She's pretty good about not breaking things, but she _is _only twenty months old."

Esme nods. "You can put her in the living room and have Alice play with her if she's not too shy. I want to get to know you."

"She's not very shy. And I brought some of her favorite toys for her to play with, so she'll be easily entertained."

Just then, Alice walks in. "Alice, dear, could you play with Abra in the living room for a bit? I want to get to know Bella."

Alice smiles at Bella. "Sure!" She walks over to Bella, and Bella hands her a bag, probably with toys in it.

Bella picks up Abra, and sets her down on the floor. "Abra? You're going to go play with Alice, okay?" She points to Alice. "This is Alice."

Abra smiles, looking impossibly cute. "Hi Alice." She enunciates carefully.

Alice grins. "Hi Abra. You want to go play?"

Abra nods. "Yeah!"

Alice takes her hand and leads her through the doorway into the living room.

I'm leaning against the door into the dining room, watching all of this, when Carlisle comes behind me.

"Edward, let's go upstairs to my office. I want to talk to you." He sounds very serious, so I nod, and follow him up the stairs. He turns. "Bella should be fine with Esme."

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**A/N: Next chapter will be Esme's chat with Bella, Carlisle's talk with Edward, and possibly some of Abra's playtime with Alice. And that means some point of view switches. I hope nobody minds!**

**I would like to thank everyone who read! Special thanks goes to GrilWithoutAName, ObessiveReader09, and cullen_girl_93, who reviewed Chapter 7, which I only posted two and a half hours ago! Also, thing needs clarifying. Listen up now. Edward is **_**not **_**Abra's dad. You will never meet Abra's dad in this story. **

**And now, all you lovely readers, there is this amazing pinkish button right below these words, which I would like you to press! Thanks!! **


	9. Conversations

**A/N: This chapter is going to be in both points of view. Each point of view will be clearly marked. Let the interrogations begin. **

**Chapter 9- Conversations**

**Bella**

Mrs. Cullen beckoned me over to the counter. "Do you like to cook?"

"I do. I don't cook very much though; there aren't kitchens in the dorms. And what should I call you?"

She grinned. "Call me Esme."

I nodded and she continued. "Did you cook when you lived at home?"

I bit my lip. "Yeah. That was a while ago though."

"I'll bet. So you're in grad school?"

"Yes. Harvard Medical. I'm interested in epidemiology."

"I thought about doing that, but then I saw the amount of school one needed to go into that, I chose architecture instead. I haven't regretted it." She smiled.

"I hope I won't regret choosing it. I don't _think _I will."

Esme nodded. "If you don't my asking, how old are you? You don't look twenty four."

"I rather do mind your asking. Will you promise not to tell anybody else?"

"I promise. Not even Carlisle will know, unless you tell him."

I nodded, and leaned towards her. "I turned eighteen in May."

She gaped at me. "Eighteen? And you're in graduate school?"

I bit my lip and nodded.

She shook her head. "Well, that wasn't quite what I was expecting. How old is Abra?"

"She's twenty months old. She'll be twenty-one months on Sunday."

"You were sixteen."

"I was. I don't want to talk about it."

She nodded. "That's fine."

"So I hear Alice's boyfriend, Edward's brother, and Edward's brother's girlfriend are coming? A lot of people you're going to have around!"

"Yeah, Jasper, Emmett, and Rosalie are coming around. My brother, his wife, and their two kids, and Carlisle's sister, and her three will be here for Thanksgiving dinner as well. So that will make seventeen for dinner. Good thing it's a big house."

"Good thing. Good thing both you and I like to cook."

She nods. "I hope Edward is surviving his and Carlisle's talk."

I shrug. "So what's Carlisle like?"

She smiles. I can tell she really loves her husband.

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**Edward**

I followed my father up the stairs, around the upstairs stove, down my parent's hallway, through their impeccable room, and into his spotless office. He motioned me to sit down.

"So who is this girl, Edward?"

"Her name is Bella. I don't know how old she is, I know her daughter is twenty months old, but I have no idea who the father is. He's not around, and she's never mentioned."

"But who is she to you?"

"A friend."

"Nothing more?"

"She tutors me."

"Nothing more than a friend?"  
"No. I wish. She's very… guarded, though. I've never been in her room; she refuses to come into my room. When I asked how old she was during the car ride up, she refused to say."

Carlisle raised his eyebrows. "Oh?"

"She asked if she had to say. I would have made her, but Alice said she didn't have to."

"I think you should listen to your sister more often. This girl-"

"Bella"

"Bella, probably hasn't had the best of lives if she is as guarded as you said. Plus the fact that she won't go into your room, and won't let you into hers. And if she won't tell you her age, it's probable that she's a lot younger than you expect."

"Do you think she looks twenty-four?"

"No."

"That's what I thought too."

"Edward, I would advise you not to try to pry information out of her. She'll tell you what she wants to when she's ready."

I nod. "Okay dad. Anything else?"

"Yeah. You needed a tutor?"

"Yes. I did. She's helped me a lot."

"If that's the way it has to go."

"Dad, why should it matter if I need tutoring? I'm going to Harvard. Isn't that enough?"

"I just wish you would try harder, Edward."

"I am trying, Dad! A couple weeks ago Bella asked me if I thought I needed her tutoring any more!"

"What did you say?"

"I said yes. I could probably pass my classes without her, but she helps me understand so much better than I would otherwise. And I'm pretty sure she needs the money a lot more than I do."

"Okay."

I nod to him.

He took a deep breath. "I'm proud of you son. You have no idea; I was so honored when you decided to become a doctor. It's not easy."

"Thanks dad."

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**Alice**

Sitting here playing with Abra was making me seriously regret my decision to become an engineer, and not work with little kids. This little girl was the cutest thing. Her English, sprinkled with words in Spanish, and another language I couldn't recognize, or maybe it was gibberish. But it did actually seem like a language, and she seemed to expect me to understand. Currently we were playing with a little wooden truck, rolling it back and forth.

I looked up when Bella peeked in, and waved to her.

Abra saw me wave, and looked up as well. "Hi mommy!"

Bella smiled at her daughter. "Hi Abra." I could see the mother's love in her face. And then "Hi Alice"

"Hi Bella! Abra's great!"

"Isn't she? I'm glad the two of you are having fun. I'm going to go cook with Esme for a while, okay?"

"That's just fine, Bella. Have fun!"

"I will."

Bella turned around and went back into the kitchen. Abra waved, and then rolled the little wooden truck back towards me. I quickly hid it behind me. "Where's the truck, Abra?"

She looked confused, searching around a little, and then she figured it. She reached behind me and grabbed the hand that held the truck. "Truck!"

I grinned at her. "You got me."

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**A/N: There's that. I'm not really satisfied with it, it was hard to get the end out, and make long enough to meet my standards, but I hope it's okay. I don't want people to think Carlisle is mean; he just has high expectations for his kids. Edward knows that, and I also wanted to show that he has his own troubles, even if they don't measure up to Bella's. **

**Thanks to all of you for reading!!! Thanks also to penguin-luver1901, Tulips at Twilight, oh-my-edward, Tracy3, hhawkes, GrlWithoutAName, xxxxParvati-Patilxxxx, trumidnite, Luinvinial, and bloodredeclipse, for reviewing Chapter 8, and to hollynn28, Luinvinial, and trumidnite, who reviewed Chapter 7 after I posted Chapter 8!!**

**Keep it up everyone!!! Thanks so much!! **

**And- RENT is my inspiration. One of the few things that have the capacity to make me sob for minutes at a time. :D **

**Chapter 10 should be Thanksgiving dinner. **


	10. Thanksgiving Dinner

**A/N: Thanksgiving dinner. Bella's point of view, because that's what I feel like right now. **

**Chapter 10- Thanksgiving Dinner **

Esme and I had been cooking and preparing for Thanksgiving dinner almost nonstop since we had arrived, yesterday morning. Now the tables in the dining room, the kitchen, and the living room were set (not everyone would fit at one) and I was setting all of the dishes for the buffet up on the long kitchen counter, while Esme finished the last pie, cherry. A car drove up outside. Esme stood up. "That's got to be Emmett and Rosalie, finally." Jasper had arrived after dinner, the day before. He was a tall, and calm, with a drawling southern accent. Esme called Carlisle down from his office, and Edward in from the piano room, in the side wing of the house, through the hallway, past the bathroom, and the cellar stairs.

The door opened and a huge blond guy who looked around 27 walked in, carrying two suitcases, followed by a beautiful blonde, who looked annoyed. She was reprimanding him for something, which I didn't catch.

"Did you guys get lost?" Esme asked.

"Yes." Said the blonde angrily. This must be Rosalie.

Emmett, Edward's brother, looked ashamed. "I didn't follow her directions, and I got lost and went to Laconia."

Edward raised his eyebrows. "Can't find your parent's house, Emmett? Have to rely on your girlfriend to do it for you? What kind of man are you?" He grinned good-naturedly.

Emmett grinned back at his brother. "At least I _have _a girlfriend. You can't say that much about yourself. Or did you finally get one?" He motions towards me.

I shake my head furiously, blushing. "No. I'm just a friend." Abra comes up behind me, and I pick her up. "I'm Bella, and this is Abra."

Emmett nods, sensing that he shouldn't tease me about Edward and I being together. Rosalie's mood seems to lift when she sees Abra. She walks over to me. "May I hold her?"

Abra smiles at her, and reaches out her arms. I look down at her. "You ungrateful child." And then up at Rosalie. "Of course." And I hand Abra to her. Abra looks up at the tall blonde, and points towards the living room. "Play!" Rosalie nods, and carries her over into the next room.

Esme comes up behind me. "Rose works with kids Abra's age in Hawaii, you can trust her."

I nod. "She doesn't really seem the little kid type, though."

Esme shrugs. "I didn't really think so when I first met her either, but she really is once you get to know her."

"Okay." I walk over towards where Edward, Emmett, and Alice are chatting, and catch the end of a conversation. Alice is shaking her head up at Emmett.

"You should know to listen to Rosalie by know, Emmett."

"But I thought I knew the way!"

Edward rolls his eyes. "She's almost always right, Emmett. Like Alice said, you should know by know."

Emmett shrugs. "I guess." He sees me. "So how did you two meet each other?" He asks, pointing to Edward and me.

I grin. "A good story. I was taking the plane back from my summer courses in Hawaii, last August."

Emmett interrupts. "And Edward was coming back from visiting me."

I nod. "So Abra threw her toy whale, and Edward picked it up, and returned it to me. And then, when we got into Seattle, we were on the same plane again. It was the beginning of a whole long series of coincidences…."

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An hour later, Esme's brother, and Carlisle's sister had arrived with their families, and the house was full. Rosalie was walking around with Abra, and I was getting some food at the buffet. People kept asking who I was, and whom I was connected to to come to Esme and Carlisle's Thanksgiving dinner, which led to some awkward moments, including one of Esme's younger nephews asking me if I was going to be their new cousin, like Rosalie and Jasper. I didn't know what to answer, so I had just shrugged.

Rosalie walked up to me, as I sat in the kitchen eating some squash. "Abra won't eat for me."

I grinned. "She can be picky about eating around people she doesn't know, especially in unfamiliar places." I sat her down in my lap. "Abra? How about some squash?" She nodded, and I spooned it into her mouth.

Rosalie stood above me. "Unfair." She said, smiling.

I shrugged. "I am her _mother, _after all."

She nodded, and then looked rather serious. "You are rather young to be a mother." She sat down next to me.

I gave her a look that clearly stated 'I don't want to talk about it'.

She nodded. "Bella, I'll give you my phone number if you ever want to talk."

I nodded. "Okay. Thanks."

She smiled. "Or you could walk over and see Alice, or call Esme. They are in the same time zone, which helps."

I gave a little laugh, and continued feeding Abra, as she went off to find someone, probably Emmett.

Alice walked up to me. "How is the little one doing?"

I looked up. "She's doing okay. She's being a picky eater."

Alice raised her eyebrows. "One sec" She was back little more than a second later, with a banana and a couple pieces of bread. "Here."

I smiled. "Thanks. She should eat these."

Alice nodded, and sat down next to me.

A few minutes later, after Abra had eaten some bread, and most of the banana. I looked over at Alice. "If you don't mind my asking, why are you so small?"

Her face breaks into a smile. "I was wondering when you were going to ask. After all, the rest of my family _is _noticeably taller than I am. When I was little, three or four, I got cancer, and the chemotherapy they gave me stunted my growth. It _did _treat my cancer though, which is what really matters. I would rather be alive and short, than dead."

"Is that why your dad decided to open his hospitals?"

She nodded. "Yeah. It was really hard to find a hospital that wasn't exclusively for adults that would treat cancer. So, when I was finally treated, all the way in England, he started his first hospital in Boston, for people who wouldn't ever be able to go to Europe for treatment."

"That's a lot of us."

She agrees. "I got really lucky. Oh, Jasper wants me for something. See you later!" She goes off into the living room, from which Jasper is beckoning.

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**A/N: There's that. I didn't know whether I would get this out before my computer shut down (it's almost tomorrow her) but I did, so here it is! Thanks to ObessiveReader09, who reviewed Chapter 9, which was posted just an hour and a half ago. **

**And to those of you who are wondering how it's possible to be in graduate school at age eighteen, it's probably not really, but I made up a little chart to show how it works. I'll see if it's possible to put it on my profile. If not, I'll take a picture of it and post a link on my profile. That might be a while though, because of possible spoilers.**

**Keep reading and reviewing!! **


	11. Days at Home

**A/N: I just planned out this story on paper, and it looks to be at least 30 chapters, most likely more than that, because I usually underestimate the amount of detail I go into. However, do not expect updates as frequent as the ones you are getting know. This is my Winter Break, and I have no school, no dance, and no homework, and therefore a lot of extra time. **

**So here goes with the days after thanksgiving, in Edward's point of view. **

**Chapter 11- Days at Home**

It was the morning after Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving Friday I guess. Alice was out, guess where? Shopping of course. Esme and Rosalie had gone as well. Actually, Rosalie had probably volunteered to go, and Esme had been dragged along. Bella had declined, and for once, Alice had been lenient. It was probably the only time I would ever see her give up an opportunity to go shopping with another female.

I walked slowly down the stairs, through the dining room, and into the kitchen. I pulled a chair close to the wood stove in the center of the room, and sat down. Bella looked in from the living room, where she was probably playing with Abra. "Oh, hi Edward."

I rubbed my face sleepily and nodded to her. "Good morning Bella."

She rolled her eyes, smiling. "Good morning? It's one in the afternoon!"

I gaped at her and looked around for a clock. She was right of course. "But, but Alice and Esme and Rosalie only left a few minutes ago!"

She shook her head. "They left hours ago. You must have fallen asleep after you saw them leave."

I shrugged. "I guess." And to myself. "Wow, one in the afternoon."

Bella grinned at me, and disappeared back into the living room. I called after her. "Hey Bella!"

She stuck her head back out. "Yeah?"

"If you like later, we can walk up the hill to the old cemetery, or I could show you around a little bit."

She nods. "Yeah, that'd be lovely."

"Okay. I'll have some breakfast or lunch, or whatever it is, and then we can go."  
"Sounds great." She goes back into the living room, and I can hear her voice speaking to Abra, though I can't seem to understand what she is saying. I walk around the kitchen, looking for some food. I find some apple bread, put two slices on a plate, take a banana out of the fruit bowl, and pour myself a glass of milk. I sit down in a rocking chair and eat.

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Half an hour later, we are walking down the dirt road that goes back from my parent's house. I point out little landmarks to her.

A stone wall. "That's the end of our property. When we first bought the house, I was probably 4; there were only three houses after this point, until Halls Hill Road."

Passing the beginning a driveway with trees covered in 'No Trespassing' signs. "We don't really know why all of that's there… it's been that way for a while, and we've talked to the people over there." I motion across the street. "And they haven't got any idea why either."

We walk past the old abandoned schoolhouse at the end of the road, and turn left to go up the hill to the cemetery. I show her a couple of the graves of my distant ancestors, and some of the oldest graves, crumbling stones from the late 1700s. On the way back, I point out the oldest house in the area, a blue farmhouse built in the 1740s. Abra walks solemnly next to her mother, pointing out things giving names in English, Spanish, and another. Finally I have to ask. "What languages does Abra speak?"

Bella picks her daughter up. "She speaks English best, with broken Spanish and Hebrew."

I raise my eyebrows. "I didn't know you knew Hebrew."

She nods. "Hebrew, Spanish, French, and German. German's my worst language. I'm still working on it."

"Wow. And that's in addition to English."

"Yeah." She shrugs like knowing five languages well is something anyone could do, and everyone does. I don't think she has any idea how smart she is.

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Bella was upstairs somewhere. I was sitting downstairs in the living room, flipping through channels aimlessly. Jasper came and sat down next to me.

"So what's up?" He asks.

"Oh, not much."

"I mean with Bella."

"I don't know. I mean, she seems so normal, but then she is so guarded whenever I ask about anything personal. I don't even know how old she is."

Jasper shrugs. "She's got her troubles. She's a single mother in graduate school."

"I know. I wish she would open, though."

"You'll just have to patient."

I nod, and Jasper gets up, walking slowly into the kitchen. Jasper is great, but he is very different than me. I can be very perceptive about what people are thinking, and he can be perceptive about what people are feeling. He's a lot quieter than I am, the opposite of Alice, who is almost always talking. I sometimes wonder how a conversations between them would work.

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It's Saturday afternoon, and I'm sitting in the living room, reading a book. I look up as soft footfalls go by through the kitchen and see Bella walk across the doorway. A minute later I hear her begin to play the piano. She's good, she might be better than I am, and my parents started taking me to piano lessons when I was four years old. I stopped playing quite so much once I was in college, but I try to find time to play at least once a week, somewhere on campus. I put my book down, and walk through the kitchen, standing in the doorway of the back room to listen to her. She closes her eyes, and plays a piece by Beethoven from memory. A piece I tried a few years ago, but stopped, because it was too challenging. It was at least ten pages of music, front and back, and she played it all the way through from memory, with only a couple small mistakes. When she had finished, I took a step forward, and stepped on a creaky floorboard I had forgotten about. She turned around and saw me.

"That was amazing Bella."

"It wasn't that great. This piano is great to play on though." She said, and motioned to our Steinway grand.

"I like it too. And your playing really was great. Did you take lessons?"

"For six years, when I was younger. I stopped when I moved."

I nodded. "Keep playing!" I went to sit in the kitchen, to listen, and to think. She had said, "when _I _moved", not "when _we _moved." Had she not moved with her parents? I frowned. She hadn't ever mentioned her parents. Had she grown up with her parents? I was really beginning to wonder about her.

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**A/N: So there's that. Next chapter will be the drive back to Boston. A lot of people are wondering about Bella's back-story. That will be in Chapter… Twenty. So it will be a little while. I would like to thank all of my readers, and Sarah, Tracy3, ShikaGirl1990, and cullen_gurl_93 for reviewing Chapter 9 after Chapter 10 was posted, and ObessiveReader09, Zoe, babylopez2008, and Tracy3 for reviewing Chapter 10!**

**Thanks to all of you, and keep it up!!!**


	12. Return to Boston

**A/N: The drive back, possibly more. In Bella's point of view.**

**Chapter 12- Return to Boston**

Sunday came, and I packed all of our stuff into out suitcase and put it outside the door to take downstairs later. I woke Abra up, and got her ready to go, and we walked out the door. I looked around for my suitcase, but it was gone. Someone, probably Edward, had taken it downstairs already. I would remember to thank him.

I picked up Abra, and we went downstairs for breakfast, a banana each, some crackers for Abra and a couple slices of the apple bread for me. Alice came down a few minutes later, and Edward, who, it seemed, had already eaten, went into the back room to play the piano. Strains of Stravinsky accompanied our breakfast.

Ten minutes later, Edward stopped playing and walked by us through the kitchen. We applauded a little bit, and Alice cheered. He rolled his eyes and went upstairs. Alice poked me. "Edward says you're a better piano player than he is. Go play something."

I shrugged. "I'm okay. Not anything great. Here, hold Abra."

She took Abra, and I went back into the piano room, and sat down at the bench. I began playing a piece of Schumann that I liked, but Alice interrupted from where she stood in the doorway. "Play something more… modern."

I began a song by Joplin that was Abra's favorite, but Alice interrupted yet again. "Recent."

I looked over at her. "You know Wicked?"

She grinned. "The musical?"

"Yeah."

"Of course! It's one of my favorites, I'm a huge fan."

"Same." And I began playing the big crashing overture that began the first song, 'No One Mourns the Wicked'_._

She clapped. "Lovely! You are as good as Edward said. And, that wasn't even in the music book. Did you just play that by ear?"

I nodded. "I played it a couple times, and then I sat down at the piano, and played it. It wasn't hard."

She shook her head at me. "Wow."

I bit my lip and shrugged.

She rolled her eyes at me. "You really are too modest, you know."

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An hour or so later, we were packed into the car, loaded down with the extra food Esme had forced on us.

She stood on the granite front steps, waving. "See you on Christmas! Bella, come back again sometime! I hope you guys got enough food!"

Alice, in the driver's seat, rolled down her window. "Mom. We got more than enough food, I will invite Bella back for Christmas if Edward doesn't, and you can always call us if you miss us, okay?" She looked back at me and gave me a little eye roll, her face clearly saying 'My mother worries too much'

Esme nodded. "I know. Bye!" She waved some more.

Carlisle stepped out of the house, and gave a short wave, as Alice backed out of the yard. Edward and I waved back.

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We were driving down the Interstate, when Alice finally spoke.

"So Bella, what did you think of our parents?"

"Both of them were really nice. Carlisle really doesn't talk much, does he?"

Edward shook his head. "Not really. Don't know where Alice got it. She's probably some sort of freak of nature." He laughed, then ducked as Alice swatted at his head. "Kidding."

Alice raised her eyebrows in the rearview mirror at me. "You better be, otherwise I'll get off the highway, kick you out of the car, and you'll have to walk back to Harvard."

Edward raised his hands in the air. "I was kidding, I promise."

Alice giggled. "I know, I know, I was too."

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An hour and a half later, Alice drove up in front of our dorm and parked. "Here you are." She said.

I unbuckled Abra, who had fallen asleep, as she usually does on long car rides, picked her up, and climbed out.

Alice hugged me, and then Edward. "See you guys!"

I stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. She turned around "Guys, I'd like to thank you both so much for extending your hospitality to me and Abra. This was Abra's first real Thanksgiving dinner, and actually, come to think of it, it was my first real one too."

Alice gaped at me. "Your first Thanksgiving dinner?"

I shook my head. "Not my first Thanksgiving dinner, but my first real one, with turkey and stuffing and pies and everything. Not that I had any turkey." I grinned. "Anyway, thanks to you both, and thank your parents for me as well." I turned to go into the dorm building when Edward stopped me.

"Thank _you _for coming Bella." He smiled at me.

I smiled back at him, and went inside, and upstairs to my room.

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A few days later, I was sitting at my desk in the dorm room, and Abra was in her crib, asleep, as I typed a paper for my German class.

She sat up, and looked up at me. "Fooh?" She asked, standing up and holding onto the edge of her crib to see what I was doing at my desk.

I turned the computer toward her. "Homework."

She frowned. "Fooh?"

I handed her a cracker, and she sat down, and ate it. When she had finished, she stood up and pointed to a bag of cookies from Esme that sat on my desk. "Fooh?" She asked again. I shook my head at her, smiling, and handed her a piece of a cookie, putting the rest in my mouth to show her that that was all she would get.

She ate the cookie and smiled. "Gooh cookie."

I nod. "Esme did make some very good cookies."

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**A/N: So there is Chapter 12. Thanks to all my readers, and to ObessiveReader09, babblingqueenm, bloodredeclipse (who reviewed for two chapters), TaylorexCullen, auatink12, Tulips at Twilight, rocnrollperson, truemidnite, sailor alpha tomboy, Ri40, CullenGrl255, GrlWithoutAName, ShikaGirl1990, and xxxxParvati-Patilxxxx for reviewing. That's an astounding fifteen reviews!!**

**Thanks again everyone, and here's a new chapter for your efforts. Keep it up!**


	13. December

**A/N: A couple of tutoring sessions, for the passage of time, possibly some other stuff. Edward's point view. **

**Chapter 13- December **

December was not my favorite time to be in Boston. Or in Cambridge for that matter. The snow had begun to pile up, and I was already tired of it. It was Tuesday, and I was sitting at my desk in the bedroom of my dorm. I looked up at the clock. Eight o'clock. Wait. _Eight o'clock? _I should be in the library. I packed up all the stuff I would need for the tutoring session, and rushed across campus. It was eight fifteen when I rushed through the door, slightly out of breath.

Bella looked up when I dropped my stack of books on the table. She raised her eyebrows. "You're late."

"I know, I'm sorry. I lost track of time."

"Your loss. I have to leave at ten as usual."

I nodded. "Okay. Let's get going then. Could you help me with the Spanish homework?"

She picked the Medical Spanish book out of the stack and opened it to a page we had worked on during the last class period. "I'm going to quiz you on what we did last class, and then we'll work on the homework, once I'm sure you got what we did, okay?"

I nodded. "Okay"

She fired off words, and I gave her English or Spanish translations, depending on the language she gave them in. After fifteen minutes of quizzing she nodded and closed the book. "So what's the homework?"

"Don't you know?'

"I forgot." She admitted. "I did it right after class was over, and promptly forgot about it. Refresh my memory."

I grinned. "Nice. So what we had to do was…"

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A while later, Bella looked at her watch. "It's ten. See you next week."

I nodded. "See you."

She left, and I watched her walk out of the library doors, her long braid swinging back and forth behind her.

I collected my books, and walked out into the cold, wintry air. The wind off the water bit through even my thick coat, and I wondered how Bella was doing in her thin-looking sweater.

I walked into the dorm building, pressed the elevator button, and waited. And waited. Five minutes later, I gave up and took the stairs. "Stupid elevators. I wish they would fix them, and they would stay fixed."

I walked into my room, and sat down on my bed. Opening up my phone, I saw I had two missed calls. I listened to my messages, one from Esme, just saying Hi, and the other from Jasper, asking me to come over if I ever wanted to talk about anything. I would call them back later. Right now, a certain mysterious girl occupied my mind totally. Bella, of course.

She was a great mother, an amazing piano player; she spoke five languages well, at age… well… I was guessing twenty-one. To be in graduate school at that age, or at whatever age she was. She wasn't twenty-four, and she most likely wasn't twenty-three, otherwise she would have said her age. Twenty-two was a little old for the way she looked, so I put her age at twenty-one, but even that was stretching it a bit on my opinion. I really wondered about her. About Abra. Everything about her was so well guarded. It seemed like she would never open up to me.

She spoke five languages. How was that even possible? She had mentioned taking German, but she was fluent in Spanish without taking that. And Hebrew. If she was Jewish she would have learned Hebrew for her Bat Mitzvah, so that took care of that. Maybe she had grown up with a Spanish-speaking family? She didn't really look as though she was of Spanish descent. She hadn't ever mentioned her parents. Maybe she had been adopted? She was just so hard to figure out. I shook my head. I had things to do. I couldn't spend all of my time thinking about Bella. Even if I wanted to.

I stood up, and walked over to my desk, willing myself to stop thinking about her. I sat down in front of my computer, and looked at the papers I had to write. What kind of sane person would want to write a paper for Anatomy of the Disease, when you could spend time thinking about your beautiful tutor? That was when I realized what my whole family, even Emmett, had probably already figured out. I was falling in love with Bella. I wished I could tell if she reciprocated the feeling.

I squeezed my eyes shut. "Focus Edward." I said to myself. And I began typing up that infernal paper.

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It was Tuesday again. Already. The professors were assigning huge amounts of homework, as we got farther into the semester. At a quarter 'til eight I picked up all of my stuff and left for the library. Snow was falling as I crossed the campus. I had grown tired of snow after so many years of living in New England, but falling snow I still found beautiful. I wandered around, making tracks through unblemished patches of newly fallen snow, which made me late to the tutoring session.

I walked through the doors of the library, and stomped the snow of my boots on the mat in the foyer. I looked up, towards the table where Bella usually sat. _Usually _being the key word here. Bella wasn't there. I checked my watch. It was after eight, and she usually arrived around a quarter 'til eight. I walked over to the librarian's desk and looked at the calendar. It confirmed the fact that it was Tuesday. I decided to sit and wait for a bit.

Later, I checked my watch again. It was eight thirty. I was beginning to worry.

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**A/N: Sorry to bloodredeclipse, who asked for longer chapters, but this is where this one felt done. Thanks to all of my readers, and to TaylorxCullen, xxxxParvati-Patilxxxx, Zoe (who reviewed two chapters), cullen_girl_93, hollynn28, truemidnite, GrilWithoutAName, ObessiveReader09, ShikaGirl1990, hhawkes, and bloodredeclipse for reviewing! I love you all!! Keep it up!!**


	14. Why Me aka If Only

**A/N: What happened to Bella? You'll find out. Bella's point of view. Edward will find out next chapter!**

**Chapter 14- Why Me? (If Only)**

I lay in bed, racked by coughs as I attempted to sleep. I sighed, and got up to sit in the window seat. Abra was staying at Angela's where she would stay healthy, and where someone would actually be able to take care of her. I couldn't stop coughing, and for the past few days had thrown up everything I had eaten or drunk. I was really sick. Really, really sick. My head ached like crazy. I curled up on the window seat, leaning against the windowpane.

The moonlight illuminated my face as I hugged my knees. I rested my face on my knees, and began to sob. I was always taking care of Abra, or doing schoolwork, or taking care of the people I tutored, making sure they passed their classes. As it was I was hardly paying rent on my tiny dorm room. I had no idea what I would do know that I had missed so many tutoring sessions. I wouldn't get paid. I sobbed harder. I wished for once that someone would take care of me, instead of me having to take care of everyone else.

No one had every really taken care of me very well. I had been made to grow up quickly. Much too quickly. Leaving home, if I could really even call it that, for college at age 14. Living in downtown New York, by myself. A mother, a single mother, at age sixteen. How could some people be so lucky, and some so unlucky? Edward, and Alice, and Emmett, who had probably had their each and every wish granted as children, who were taken care of so well to this day, though they were in graduate school, or had already graduated. Their supreme luck in having two parents to love and care for them.

Who had ever loved me? Abra did, but she depended on me for everything. I had to work to pay for her childcare, her food, someplace to live that would be safe for a girl who was not yet two. I gave Abra all I had, yet look at what she had for a life, compared to what Edward and his siblings had had for a life when they were not yet two. I just hoped to give Abra a better life than I had gotten. I was pretty sure I already had. For one thing, I hadn't- No. I can't think about that.

My sobs slowly subsided, but my coughs did not, as I fell half-asleep against the freezing bay window surrounding the hard window seat I sat on. I awoke from my half-conscious state when someone decided it would be funny to throw snowballs at my window. They could probably see me up here. I buried my face in my knees and began to sob again. Why did it have to be me? All these misfortunes, why couldn't they have been distributed evenly between everyone? Why did some people get so many piled on their shoulders, while others got so few? Why was the next thought for some 'Why do I have to write this stupid essay?' while for others it was 'How will I feed my child?' or 'How will I pay the rent?'

Another snowball hit the window, and I turned my face to look down at the people throwing them. A group of boys stood there, and one, probably seeing my tear-stained face, tapped his friend on the shoulder and pointed up at me. His friend shrugged, and motioned to the group to come on. They left. I sighed.

I walked over to the small mirror on top of my dresser, and examined my face. It was tear-stained to be sure. I found a rag, wet it under the faucet and sat back down on the window seat to dab at my face. This, however, only made my crying increase. There was no one else to do this for me. There was only me. And, the thought occurred to me, it could be that way for the rest of my life, if I didn't do anything about it.

I needed something to cheer myself up, so I took out a CD from my meager collection, and stuck it in my Walkman. I lowered the volume, it was late, and listened as the cast of Rent began to sing, and I realized the full meaning of the song.

_"How do you measure _

_A year in the life?_

_How about love?_

_How about love?_

_How about love? Measure in love"_

"_Share love, give love, spread of love_

_Measure, measure your life in love" _

I sighed, and resolved to open up more. I curled up on my window seat, and fell asleep as the CD finished.

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I awoke, early the next morning, as the sun came up. I was sore, tired, cold, and I still couldn't stop coughing. I got up and went to curl up on my bed, attempting to stay warm enough. I wrapped my thin blanket around my shoulders, and fell asleep again, as the rest of the dorm woke up.

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I awoke and fell asleep without any idea of time for the next day or so, I really had no idea what day, or what time it was, sometimes not even whether it was day or night. I would get too hot and put on a tank top and shorts, and then minutes later I would be freezing cold, and be piling on all of my clothing and curling up in bed, wrapped in a blanket. I hadn't eaten for days, but I kept retching every once in a while. The coughing never stopped. Sometimes I would get to thinking about how badly I was doing and the sobbing would come back. If only, if only. Those two words were the story of my life.

I had always wished. Always hoped. One of the very select few that had come true was the one I was living through right now. The wish to go to college, and do something in the field of medicine.

That, and the wish to be a mother. If only the two had not been combined. If only. Those two words were back. If only they would go away for once. I thought back to Thanksgiving, and it seemed like a dream. What if it really was all a dream? I had no idea anymore. Maybe Abra was a dream too. But no, the crib against the wall. Abra was real. Of that, at least, I was sure.

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**A/N: So there's a dose of angst for everyone. Credit goes to Jonathon Larson for the lyrics of 'Seasons of Love'. Thanks to all of my readers, and to shininglights (who reviewed four chapters), twifanforever, Zoe, Dark Rose Forever, jasper's lil pixie, IKD (who reviewed four chapters), ShikaGirl1990, hhawkes, bloodredeclipse, hollynn28, Tulips at Twiliight, and GrlWithoutAName for reviewing!! Keep it up!!**


	15. On the Other Side of the Door

**A/N: Edward finds out why Bella didn't come to the tutoring session, and a bit more too. (Only a **_**bit, **_**don't get your hopes up.) **

**Chapter 15- On the Other Side of the Door**

I thought back to the last Medical Spanish class before last Tuesday's tutoring session. Had I seen Bella that day? Thinking hard about it, I realized I hadn't. She hadn't been at class on Wednesday, either, nor had she been at class today, Friday. It was the twelfth of December, and I hadn't seen Bella since the fifth. A whole week. I checked my watch. Three o'clock.

I ran down the four flights of stairs to the lobby and through the door into the office. The secretary looked up. "How can I help you?"

"I'd like to know Isabella Swan's room number?"

She raised an eyebrow. "And why might that be?"

"She's a friend, but I haven't seen her for a week. I want to check if she's all right."

"She's a friend, but you don't know her room number?"

"I know she lives on the third floor, but I've never been in her room, she's very private about that sort of thing."

The secretary nodded. "Okay. Isabella Swan did you say?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

She traced her finger down a list in a binder. "Third floor, room K."

I smiled. "Thanks ma'am." And left.

I rushed up the two flights of stairs to the third floor, and down the hall to K. I knocked, wondering what I would find. I waited. I knocked again. I waited some more. Finally, after ten minutes of standing outside her door, it opened a crack, and Bella's face peeked around the edge.

I couldn't believe what I saw. Bella was usually rather pale, but often had some blush to her cheeks. Now, her face was almost paper white. She didn't look like she had eaten at all in the past week, and her face was thinner. She, all in all, looked awful. Worse than I had expected.

She blinked at me a couple times before she seemed to recognize me. "Edward?" She asked, in a whisper, hardly able to talk.

I nodded. "It's me. May I come in?"

She nodded. "One second." The door closed, and then opened a couple minutes later. I walked in and looked around, trying not to look aghast at her tiny barren room. She lived _here? _This place was the size of a generous closet, it was not a room for two people, even if one of them was not yet two. Especially if one of them was not yet two.

She motioned me to a chair set at a small table in the center of the room. She sat down on the bed, and hugged her knees. A blanket was wrapped around her shoulders, and she still shivered.

"Have you been to see a doctor?"

She shook her head. "Can't"

My brow furrowed. "Why not?"

She bit her lip, and rested her head on her knees. She looked so sad and vulnerable. She looked up again, and gestured around, and said something I couldn't catch.

I leaned toward her. "What was that?"

She gestured around again, and strained her voice to say. "Can't you tell?"

I looked around again, and then I figured it out. She couldn't afford it. "Oh. Can I help?"

She shook her head. "No. Did you come for your tutoring? Sorry I missed last Tuesday. We can make it up know if you like." Her voice almost gave out on the last few words.

I almost gaped at her. "No, that's all right. I'll pay you for last week, though." I pulled out my wallet.

She was about to say no, but then she changed her mind. "Okay" She sighed. She pocketed the money.

I shivered. "Do you have heat in here?"

She sighed, and looked down. "They turned it off."

"Why?"

"I couldn't pay. They upped the rent." She didn't look.

I looked around. "Where's Abra?"

She looked up finally. "She's been staying at her daycare in Somerville, so she won't get sick. "

I nodded. "Good idea. Is there anything I can do to help?"

She shook her head. "No."

"Do you want me to send Alice over?"

She looked up at me. "Would you?"

I nodded. "I'll go over and get her."

She looked grateful. "Thank you so much, Edward."

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I walked across the Harvard campus, and down the Charles River to the MIT campus. I called Alice's cell phone on my way there.

"Hi, Alice?"

"Hi Edward. What's up?"

"I need you to come. I'll meet you outside your dorm. I'm waiting outside now."

"Okay, I'll be down in a minute. What's the problem?" She could hear the urgency in my voice.

"I'll tell you when you get down here, on the walk over."

"Okay. See you."

"Bye"

"Bye"

She was down a minute later, as promised, zipping up her fleece. "What happened?"

"It's Bella."

"What's with Bella?"

"She's really sick. I don't think she's left her room since Monday, if not Sunday or Saturday. I got to wondering where she was when she didn't come meet me in the library on Tuesday, and then she wasn't in Spanish on Wednesday or today. And when I thought about it, she wasn't in class on Monday either."

"So you went to see her?"

"I did. And I've got to prepare you. Not only does she look really bad, but her and Abra's dorm room is smaller than the closet in your room. It's about the size of _my _closet."

"Her room?"

"Her room."

"Poor thing. Does she have a closet?"

"No. No closet. No bathroom, even."

"Was Abra there?"

"Supposedly Abra's staying at her daycare in Somerville."

"Okay."

"Here we are." Alice walked over to the elevators. I shook my head. "Alice, the elevators are broken, come up the stairs."

Alice looked annoyed. "Broken again?"

"They're always broken."

She rolled her eyes. We got up to the third floor, and I opened the door. "It's room K. You might have to wait a little bit. She took ten minutes to respond to my knock."

"You aren't coming?"

"I think she's pretty uncomfortable having me in my room. I think she's pretty uncomfortable being alone with a guy older than 10."

Alice look sad. "Poor girl. I'll call you if I need you to bring anything down, okay? So don't turn your phone off."

I nod. "I won't. Good luck"

She walked down the hall, and I walked up the stairs.

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**A/N: So there's that chapter! Thanks to all you readers, this story now has over 6000 hits!! Thanks also to twifanforever, Sarah, Dark Rose Forever, Hollynn28, ilovemclife, TaylorxCullen, hhawkes, truemidnite, xxxxParvati-Patilxxxx, NikkyB, cullen_girl_93, ShikaGirl1990, bloodredeclipse, ObessiveReader09 (who reviewed two chapters), GrlWithoutAName, IKD, Amber Quible, and danielledisaster for reviewing!! Keep it up everyone!!**


	16. The Doctor A

**A/N: Alice and Edward manage to convince Bella to see the doctor. Alice's point of view, because someone needs to see how things really are, not how Bella thinks they are. **

**Chapter 16- The Doctor**

I knocked on the door to room K, Bella's room. A few minutes later, she opened the door. I looked her up and down. She was very thin, and much paler than she normally was. She was shivering, and coughing, and was wrapped in a blanket. Her room was freezing cold. I sat down on the only chair, and she curled up in bed.

"What happened?"

She looked up at me, and I saw the fear in her eyes. Fear of me? Fear of how sick she was? Fear of something else? I couldn't tell. She began to talk, and I had to kneel beside her bed to hear.

"On Saturday morning I woke up coughing and took Abra to her daycare as I normally do, every morning. By that afternoon, I had thrown up too many times to count, and I knew I couldn't take care of Abra, so I called her daycare, it's run by a lady named Angela, and told her that I needed her to keep Abra for the next few days, and I would call her when I was ready to pick her up. I've done that before when I needed to go on a school trip or something, so she didn't ask, and I didn't tell her I was sick. I've just gotten sicker since, expect I've stopped throwing up."

"Why?"

"I haven't eaten or drank anything since Monday, and nothing has stayed down since probably lunch on Friday."

Bella hadn't gotten any nutrition or any calories at all since almost exactly a week ago. No wonder she looked so thin and drawn. "Bella."

"What?"

"I don't care what you say, you need to go to a doctor"

She locked her stubborn gaze with mine. "No."

"You have to!"

"I can't!"

"Bella! You're dying."

"I'm not dying Alice. I'm just sick. I'll get better!"

"You haven't. You're dehydrated, and you've got malnutrition. You've gone without hydration for a week. People die without water after a week and a couple days."

Her brown eyes were still steely with determination. "I can't."

"You have to!"

"Alice. I've got a hundred dollars to my name right now. In two weeks I have to pay my rent and Abra's daycare. That's a lot more than a hundred dollars. I haven't bought food in weeks to try and save up. I don't have any money. I can't go to the doctor." She looked up at me slowly, met my eyes, and then fell back onto her bed, breaking down into racking sobs. She rolled towards the wall so I wouldn't see her face.

Seeing her like this almost made me cry. When I first met her, Bella had inspired me with her amazing mothering and smarts. Now, I saw exactly how cultivated that façade was. She was really just a young mother, with way too much on her plate. I wrapped my arms around her and held her as she cried. Minutes later, she sat up and looked at me.

"I've always tried to do better for Abra than I ever got myself." Each word bordered on a sob. "But now, now I'm just abandoning her like my pa-" She began sobbing again.

I rubbed her back, and finished her sentence in my head. "_Like my parents abandoned me."_ "It'll be okay, Bella."

She sits up and wipes her face on her sleeve. "I wish…" She trailed off.

I look at her, "Bella? We have to get you somewhere else. You can't stay here."

She got the stubborn look on her face again. "But."

I shook my head. "Edward's dorm room or mine. Your choice."

"Are you sure? Edward's is a lot closer…" I trailed off as she shook her head fiercely.

"I won't stay in Edward's room unless you are there the whole time."

I nodded. "I'll be there. I've got to make a couple phone calls, okay?"

She nodded.

I dialed Edward's number. "Hey Edward?"

_"Alice! How-"_

"I need you to prepare your spare room for Bella." Bella's eyes widened at the words 'spare room'.  
"He has a spare room?" She whispered.

I put a finger to my lips and nodded.

_"Okay, will do. Extra blankets and everything?"_

"Yeah, okay. I'll be staying too, Bella's request. Also, could you go out and buy some broth and popsicles. One sec-" I put my hand over the phone.

"Bella, you're vegetarian, right?"

She nodded.

"Edward?"

"_Alice, you back?"_

"Yeah. Make sure the broth is vegetarian, if at all possible. Thanks. "

"_Should I go now?"_

"Yeah, go now. Bye. See you later."

"_See you Alice."_

I dialed Jasper's number. "Hey Jazz."

_"Hey Alice, what's up? What did Edward want you for?"_

"Look, Bella's really sick, so I'll be staying over at Edward's place for a while. Could you bring over my sleeping bag and some clothes?"

_"Aren't you going to come over and get them yourself? Pick out your outfits and everything?"_ He laughed.

I shook my head, and then remembered I was on the phone. "No I have to stay with Bella, so she feels safe and comfortable.

_"Okay. I'll bring them over soon."_

"Thanks Jazz"

_"See you"_

"Bye." I shut my phone, stuck it in my pocket and looked over at Bella who was curled up on her bed, shivering. "Do you want to get dressed in something decent and go upstairs?"

She nodded. I turned around and opened her dresser drawers. Only two had any clothes in them, and those two were almost empty, as well. I wondered how a person could survive with so few clothes. Even _Edward _would think she needed a shopping trip. I pulled out a dark blue long sleeve shirt and a pair of worn jeans, and handed them to her.

I turned away as she pulled them on, turning back around as she announced, "Done" almost inaudibly. I looked around for a closet, and then remembered she didn't have one. I spotted a coat crumpled at one end of the window seat and brought it over to her. It was hardly a coat, more of a summer jacket.

"Is this all you have?" I asked, holding it up.

She nodded sadly.

I pulled off my thick winter coat and handed it to her, giving her a look that said clearly _Don't argue._

She didn't. She pulled it on and stopped shivering quite so much. She gave me a small smile, the first one I had seen since I had entered the room, probably an hour ago.

I quickly dialed Jasper's number.

"Hey Jazz?'

_"Yeah?"_

"Bring my other winter coat to, would you?"

_"'Kay. See ya."_

"Bye Jazz"

I shut my phone and watched as Bella collected a few small items and put them in a bag.

"Is that all you're going to want?'

"Yes."

"Okay. Let's go." I inclined my head towards the door.

She nodded, and followed me up the stairs. She was out of breath by the time we stood outside Edward's door, and we had taken both flights slowly. I hadn't been at all winded. She was really sick.

She looked at me, so I knocked.

Edward opened the door. "There you are. Come on in."

I walked in, with Bella clutching my arm to keep her balance and stay on her feet. I walked her through the living room to the spare room. I went out to talk to Edward while she changed back into her pajamas and got into the bed.

"How is she?"

"She's pretty bad."

"And she's refusing to go to the doctor."

"I think I got her convinced."

"What did you tell her?'

"I told her that she was dying."  
"I guess that worked." He said, raising his eyebrows.

I shrugged.

"I guess."

He frowned. "I'm worried."

"I know."

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**A/N: Thanks for reading!! Thanks to cullen_girl_93, DuCkSoFdArKnEsS, Blue-eyed Blondie, asianpuppy13, bloodredeclipse, GrlWithoutAName, and hhawkes for reviewing!! And thanks to hhawkes's review, I realized something about this story. At first I thought I had just fit Bella and Edward into my non-Twilight storyline, but in the same way the story is about Bella being fragile (emotionally rather than physically) and Edward and the Cullens protecting her. So there's today's epiphany. **

**Keep up the reviews!!**


	17. The Doctor B

**A/N: The doctor visits Bella. Bella's perspective. **

**Chapter 17- The Doctor B**

I lay down on the bed in Edward's spare room, and closed my eyes. I was feeling much better, being warm and in a comfortable bed so unlike the awful cheap one in my room. Alice had told me something that I wanted to remember. What was it? Oh, I'm so sleepy…

I was about to nod off when I remembered. Her voice entered my head _"Bella. You're dying."_ That's what she had told me. I didn't want to die. I knew then that I had to go to the doctor. That the Cullens would help me if I got kicked out of the dorm room for not paying my rent. That Harvard probably wouldn't kick me out, seeing as I was here on a full scholarship, and was acing my classes.

I fell asleep.

I woke up.

I fell asleep.

I woke up.

I fell asleep.

I woke up. I sat up and looked around. Alice sat in a chair near my bedside. I looked bleary-eyed over at her. She smiled. "You woke up."

I nodded. "Doctor?"

She smiled. "Edward called someone, and they told us to call back when you were ready to see them. They'll come here."

I sucked in a breath. "He or she?"

"She."

I relaxed.

Alice smiled at me. "Come on Bella. We knew you wouldn't want a male doctor. We're not stupid."

I grinned. "Did Jasper come?"

She nodded. "Yeah. Like a day ago."

"Oh."

She laughed. "You look better."

"I feel better. Not good, but better than I did before. Comparative."

Alice nodded. She opened the door and called to Edward. "Call up the doctor, would you?"

She closed the door and looked back at me. "The doctor will be here in ten minutes. Are you okay wearing what you're wearing?"

I nodded.

She nodded back. "Do you want some water or something?"

"Tea?"

"Of course. I'll go make it, if that's all right."

I nodded, and lay back down.

Alice came back in a couple minutes later with a steaming mug. "Here. It's a bit hot, so be careful."

I nodded, and took the mug.

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A few minutes later, I had finished my tea and given my mug to Alice, when there was a knock on the dorm room door. I heard Edward open it, and greet whoever was on the other side. A minute later, there was a knock on my door, and a woman who looked about thirty walked in.

"Hi there. I'm Dr. Goldberg. You're Isabella?"

"Bella."

The doctor looked over at Alice. "Do you want her to stay or leave?"

"Can she stay?"

"Of course."

"First of all, I'm going to need to ask you some questions to get to know you and your medical history a bit."

I nodded.

"Full name?'

"Isabella Adina Swan"

"Age?"

Alice looked at me. I looked down.

Dr. Goldberg asked again. "Age?"

I took a deep breath. "Eighteen." I said, in a tiny voice.

Dr. Goldberg looked up at me. "Eighteen?" She raised an eyebrow.

I nodded. I looked over at Alice, who was gaping at me. I looked down at my knees.

"Birth date?"

"May 25th, 1990."

"Do you think your parents were good about getting you your shots when you were young?"

I shook my head.

"You don't?"

"They abandoned me when I was a week old." I didn't dare look up.

"Your guardians then."

"I don't know. I probably got all of my shots from age five to age nine, but before and after that, probably not."

"Okay. Have you gotten a flu shot?"

"This year?"

"This year."

"No."

"Recently?"

"No"

"Okay. How tall are you?"

"I'm five foot five."

"And how much do you weigh normally?"

"About a hundred and ten pounds."

She turned to Alice. "Do you have a scale?"

"Probably." She opened the door. "Edward?"

"Yeah."

"Do you have a scale?"

"Like for people."

"Yeah."

"Yeah, I do. One second."

A little more than a second later, Alice had the scale. She handed it to the doctor. The doctor put it down on the floor and motioned for me to stand on it. I got up out of bed, and stood on it.

The doctor looked me up and down. "I'm guessing your hair is part of the normal weight you gave me."

I nodded. "Well, yeah."

She nodded. "I'm just going to hold it up, and see what the difference is." She picked up my braid. "Two pounds, So, you usually weigh about a hundred and eight, and right now you are weighing in at ninety eight. That's dangerously low. Just with that you should go to the hospital."

I frowned.

She pointed at the bed. "Go ahead and lie down. I'm going to ask you about how you're feeling."

I got back in the bed, and lay down, trying not to fall asleep.

"How long have you been feeling sick?"

"Since Saturday morning."

"Yesterday?"

"Yesterday! No. The week before." I turned to Alice. "How long was I asleep?"

"A day and a half."

"Really?"

She nodded.

The doctor cleared her throat. "So you've been feeling sick for more than a week."

I nodded.

"When did you last eat?"

"Saturday a week ago, in the afternoon. But I threw it up."

She frowned. "That would explain the weight loss. And have you been drinking water?"

I shook my head, but Alice interrupted.

"She hadn't had any water when we saw her on Friday, but we've been giving her a glass or two every time she wakes up, since. Once every few hours or so. She hasn't thrown it up."

Dr. Goldberg nodded and looked at me. "Do you remember any of that?"

I shook my head. "No,"

"Okay. Here. Let me take your temperature." She put the thermometer under my tongue, and I waited.

It beeped after a bit, and she looked at it, taking it out of my mouth. "102.2. That's not good. What sorts of symptoms have you been having?"

I thought. "I've been really tired, and I was throwing up, and I'm still coughing a lot. I've had a lot of bad headaches, and I was having trouble sleeping. Umm… I've been getting really cold and-" Alice cut me off.

"They turned off the heat in her dorm room. That's one of the reasons we brought her up here."

"Why?"

I looked down. "I couldn't pay."  
The doctor nodded, and wrote something down on her clipboard. "We're going to need to get you to the hospital, and get some food and water into you. There are also some tests I'm going to want to run."

"But-"

Alice came over and sat next to me. "We'll pay."

I shook my head. "I don't want you too."

"We're going to pay whether you want us too or not."

I looked at her. "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why would you want to pay for me to go to the hospital? I'm not family, I hardly even know you."

Alice shook her head. "If you don't get better, we're never going to forgive ourselves. Edward-" She looked at my eyes. "Will never recover."

I nodded, understanding exactly what she meant.

The doctor finished writing on her clipboard, and looked at Alice. "Can you get her to the hospital?"

Alice nodded. "My boyfriend can bring the car over, and I can take her over. Which one?"

"You can just follow me. I'll get her admitted. I'll be waiting in the lobby."

Alice nodded, and the doctor left.

Edward called Jasper while Alice got me ready to go.

Minutes later, I was downstairs, being loaded into Alice's tiny car, and we were following Dr. Goldberg to the hospital. After a short drive, she pulled up at the entrance to a hospital, and Alice parked behind her. We got out.

Dr. Goldberg walked up to the front desk. "I have a patient who needs admitting."

The receptionist looked up, and Dr. Goldberg showed her hospital credentials. The receptionist nodded. "Name"

"Isabella Swan" I said, standing next to the doctor.

"Age"

"Eighteen"

"Complaint"

I looked at Dr. Goldberg. She answered. "Possible mono, or something else, she's going to need some blood work and an IV.

The receptionist filled out a slip of paper and handed it to the doctor. "Take her up."

"Can Alice come up?"

"She's not family, is she?"

"Well, no."

"Then she can't."

"But-" I looked up at Dr. Goldberg, realizing how tall she was. "She and her family are about all I have."

"Okay. Just tell the nurse she's your cousin."

"All right." I beckoned to Alice. "You're my cousin so you can come up to the ward, okay?"

Alice nodded. "Righty-oh, cousin Bella."

I grinned, and Dr. Goldberg led us through a door, and up to the ward.

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**A/N: So, there's hope yet. Thanks to all my readers, and to asianpuppy13, twifanforever, Dark Rose Forever (who reviewed two chapters), nikkyb, hhawkes, nisilein, skittleysweet, TaylorxCullen, bloodredeclipse, babylopez2008 (who reviewed three chapters), blue-eyed pixie, , DuCkSoFdArKnEsS, and potterhead0013, who reviewed!!**

**I'm going on a trip tomorrow, and I won't be bringing this lovely laptop of mine. I will try and write some ideas for chapters, but no updates. Sorry. I'll try to update one more time tonight. **

**Thanks, and keep up the good work!!**


	18. Recovery

**A/N: Bella's recovery, in Edward's point of view. Most likely the last chapter before I leave on my trip. **

**Chapter 18- Recovery**

I was walking into the waiting room of the hospital when my phone buzzed. I pulled it out of my pocket.

**1 New Text Message**

_From: Alice_

_To: Edward_

_Say you're Bella's cousin to be allowed up. Otherwise you won't be able to see her. _

_A_

I wrote back

_From: Edward_

_To: Alice_

_Will do._

_E_

I walked up to the receptionist's desk. "I'm hear to see Bella Swan?"

"And you are?"

"Edward Cullen, her cousin. My sister's up there already. Alice Cullen."

"Okay. Floor 5, third room."

"Thanks." I went over to the elevators, and pressed the up button. I smiled when one opened. Elevators that actually worked. Amazing. I pressed the button for the fifth floor and waited.

The doors opened on the fifth floor, and I walked down the hall to the third room. I knocked, and Alice opened it.

"Hi Edward. Come in."

The room was small, with a bed, a small table next to it, and a couple of chairs. I sat down in one of them and looked over at Bella.

She was asleep, with her long braid tucked over her shoulder. She slept curled up in a tight ball, and occasionally she would say something I didn't catch.

I leaned over to Alice, who sat next to me. "What's she been saying?"

"She's said Abra's name a couple of times, and she's said some other stuff. She said your name twice."

I looked at her. "Really?"

"I wouldn't lie."

"Did the doctor ask how old she was when she was examined?"

"Yes."

"Did she say?"

"Yes."

"What did she say?"

"Her age."

"You're not going to tell me, are you?"

"I am not going to tell you, that's correct."

"Why not?"

"She'll tell you when she's ready to tell you. She's got enough to deal with already."

I frowned. "I know. I just wish it was easier for me to help her."

Alice shrugged. "I wish too."

I sighed, and began watching Bella again, as her shoulders rose and fell with each breath. She was… beautiful.

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Days went by, and with each daily visit, I saw the color returning to Bella's cheeks, and her usual energy coming back. I brought her books and the assignments from her teachers, and she began tutoring me again. Alice or one of the nurses was always around during these times, so Bella would feel safe. I never grew tired of watching her while she was asleep, or looking at something else. I wondered what she would think if she figured out that I was in love with her.

In love with Bella Swan, single mother, graduate student, filled with unknown talents, and unknown troubles. What would she think of me, if she knew? Would she be scared of me? Did she love me in return? And what would other people think of me, Edward Cullen, son of the _famous _Cullens, _those _Cullens, falling in love with a poor single mother without parents or family, except for her young daughter? I wondered what Abra thought of me. I laughed to myself, remembering her words on the plane. _"Niss man!" _and her mother's words, her beautiful mother's words, along with her beautiful smile, _"Yes, he is a nice man. He returned your whale. His name is Edward." _I wondered what I would have done if she had died. _I would have adopted Abra. _For a second I wondered where the thought had come from, but then I realized that it was true. I _would _have adopted Abra, if Bella had died. But I _wouldn't _let Bella die.I _couldn't_.

Alice came up behind me, as I stood there, watching Bella.

"What are you doing Edward?"

I looked down at Alice, then over at Bella, and then spoke the absolute truth. "Falling in love."

Alice's face broke into a grin. She threw her arms around me. "Oh, I knew it Edward. Thank goodness."

I smiled at her. "What, you need a sister or something?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah. A sister and a niece."

I motioned to Bella. "Well, here you are. Special delivery."

She looked up at me, fake-angry. "I need the niece too."

I pointed out the window to the snow beginning to fall. "Sorry. The Edward Cullen Delivery Service doesn't operate in snowy conditions."

She pretended to slap me. "Move to Florida then. You won't make any money here. And if you move to Florida you can get away from the Boycott the Edward Cullen Delivery Service Campaign that I'm starting."

I fake indignation. "You wouldn't! Your own brother!"

She grinned. "I would. You didn't deliver your own sister her new niece!"

I frowned. "That's true. Too bad."

She shrugged. "It is a pity." She grinned, and then we both burst out laughing, and had to leave the room, so as not to wake Bella.

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It took weeks, two in the hospital, and a few more filled with visits to her dorm room, before Bella was declared fully recovered. She was getting better at being in the room alone with me, as long as it wasn't for very long. We had picked Abra up a few days after Bella had been discharged, and she had apologized to Angela, not for leaving Abra for so long, but for worrying her so much.

Alice and I were bringing Bella and Abra some dinner; we knocked on the door and Bella answered. Her hair, her amazing hair was not up in its usual bun, or down in its infrequent braid, but hanging completely loose, reaching past her hips, so she could sit on it easily. Alice noticed as quickly as I did.

"Bella!" She exclaimed.

"What?"

"Your hair!"

"What? Is there something wrong with it?" She grabbed the ends and pulled them in front of her to look at them.

"No! It's so… long!"

She raises her eyebrows. "Didn't you know how long it was?"

"Well, yeah, but it looks so pretty down! You ought to wear it down more often!"

Bella shook her head, causing the long dark chocolate-colored curls to swish back and forth in the most marvelous way. "It gets annoying really quickly. I was just letting it dry a little after my shower."

Alice looked martyred. "Oh Bella. I'm going to force you to wear it down more often. Oh! And that reminds me. I have to take you on a shopping trip!" She sounded highly exited.

Bella sounded not quite so exited; dubious probably would have been a better word. "A shopping trip?"

Alice gave her a big grin. "Yes! I'm going to take you clothes shopping as soon as I have a free day. We're going to have a great time."

I was convinced I heard Bella mutter. _"_You're _going to have a great time. _I _hate shopping." _I laughed to myself. She was getting better.

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**A/N: Thanks to all of you for reading, and to ShikaGirl1990, DuCkSoFdArKnEsS, twifanforever, ilovemclife, SunnySkies4Life, Rl40, Reader of the Classics, hollynn28, cullen_girl_93 (who reviewed two chapters), Dark Rose Forever, bloodredeclipse, ObessiveReader09, Nikki, and shininglights for reviewing!! **

**Some notes on things you said in your reviews. **

**Bella's Age- Bella doesn't like to talk about her age because she doesn't want people to know about her past, with Abra, and her parents, and other things, which you will find out about in about three chapters. She also doesn't want people to make a big deal over her, or to call attention to her in any way. She's really shy, and rather scared.**

**Accuracy- My obsessions with accuracy comes from (ooh, dare I admit it!) the fact that I live in the state that includes Forks, and the fact that I have been to Forks and La Push four times. I **_**hate**_** it when fanfiction writers forget about Puget Sound and the Hood Canal, and think one can drive straight from Seattle to Forks. (You wouldn't. If you took the ferry, it would be about half as long as if you just drove) And, since my extended family lives in the New England area, I am borrowing their homes for places in the story (Angela's house, Carlisle and Esme's house). Accuracy matters to me, and so I reflect that in my story. **

**Bella's birthday and middle name- I changed her birthday because of the way I have the timeline working. Like Abra's name, Bella's birthday happened before this was a Twilight story, and I didn't change it. Her middle name is changed because I changed her religion. Ooh!**

**Extra long author's note. I leave on my trip early tomorrow morning, and get back on Sunday night (the 4****th****). I go to school again on Monday. Do not expect chapters to be quite as frequent as they were. I will do my best, but there probably will be many fewer two-chapter days. Some days will go by without a single chapter. **

**Thanks for reading all of this, and remember to leave a review!! Keep up the amazing work, and happy new year!!**


	19. Let's Go Shopping aka BellaBarbie

**A/N: I'm back and ready to write!! I had a lovely time on my trip, in case anybody is wondering, and school started again yesterday.  
Bella and Alice's shopping trip, in Bella's point of view. **

**Chapter 19- Let's Go Shopping- aka BellaBarbie**

I woke up and looked at my watch to find out the date. Was it the twenty fifth already? I sighed. I didn't know why Alice was so persistent, but just to get her to shut up, I had agreed to go on a shopping trip with her. I was seriously regretting it at this point.

I got Abra up, and dropped her off at Angela's, swiping a fresh (and piping hot) banana muffin off of the kitchen counter as I left.

An hour later I was sitting at my desk when someone knocked on the door. I opened and Alice almost skipped inside. I wondered how anyone could be so excited about shopping.

"Are you ready Bella?" Alice asked, hopping from one foot to the other.

"Ready as I'll ever be." I muttered.

She raised her eyebrows. "That is not a satisfactory answer Miss Swan."

I look at her. "It's not? Well. Then yes."

She smiles. "There you go." She looks over what I'm wearing, which is obviously unsatisfactory, but she sighs and just says, "Come on Bella."

I follow her out the door, locking it behind me, and down to her car. I sit down in the passenger seat because Edward isn't coming, and Alice drives off.

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We arrive at a huge mall, and Alice parks in one of a very small group of empty parking spaces. I reluctantly leave the car and follow Alice, who leads me into the first clothing store she sees.

Alice and I look around and the multitude of men's suits. She grins at me. "Wrong store!" And we turn and leave.

As we are walking down the sidewalk, I sigh and look around me. Alice stops and looks at me. "What?"

I frown. "I hate shopping and I hate crowds."

She looks as though she is about to faint. "You hate shopping?"

I nod. "I'd rather be in my dorm room reading."

She gapes at me. "And crowds?"

I nod again. "Too many people, too little space. I like personal space, so I don't like crowds."

Alice shrugs. "Whatever. You're still coming though. Don't think you're getting out of this."

We begin walking and I sigh again.

She turns toward me, and looks a little annoyed. "You need a whole new wardrobe!"

I look at the clothes I'm wearing. A pair of old blue jeans, and a gray Harvard sweatshirt with only a few stains. "What's wrong with these?"

She gapes at me again. "But… you'll look so much prettier if you wear nicer clothes!"

I frown. Looking pretty and standing out is _not _what I want to do. I don't say so, however, I just shrug and follow Alice as she walks into the first of a plethora of stores.

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At least five stores later, I'm yawning, and loaded down with two bags on each arm. Alice has more. My stomach grumbles. "When was lunchtime?" I ask.

Alice checked her watch. "It's dinner time. Are you hungry?"

I give her a 'duh!' face and she grins. "Of course I'm hungry if I haven't eaten anything other than a mini muffin in the last 24 hours! Do you eat?"

She nods. "Yeah." She thinks a little bit. "Sometimes at least."

I roll my eyes, and the look around the mall as we exit a store that I've already forgotten the name of. "Is there any good food around here?"

Alice looks up at me. "Define good."

"Vegetarian, healthy, food that actually tastes good, and is not imitation meat."

She bites her lip. "You can come back to my house?"

I nod. "Okay. Could we pick Abra up on the way?"

She nods back. "Sure. Just tell me the way there."

Was I ever relieved to be leaving! I wondered how much Alice had spent on that little black credit card of hers. I banished the thought. I didn't even want to know.

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Twenty minutes later we drove up outside Angela's door. I got out, and Alice followed me. I went up the front steps and knocked. Angela's husband Ben opened.

"Hi Bella! You're early."

I nodded. "I got a ride from a friend." I motioned to Alice, and she waved. "Ben this is Alice, a friend of mine, Alice this is Ben, Angela's husband."

"Hi!" Alice said.

Ben smiled and nodded. "Hi" He motioned us inside the house and yelled for Angela. "Angela! Bella's here for Abra!"

Angela called back. "She's just finishing her dinner, come on up!"

I led Alice up the stairs, down the hall and into the dining room where Abra was sitting in a booster seat at the table, finishing her macaroni. When she saw me she set down her blue plastic fork and raised her arms in the air. "Mama!"

"Hi Abra. Now finish your food."

She nodded seriously and set to work spearing each individual piece of pasta with her fork. Her tongue stuck out of the side of her mouth in concentration.

Alice giggled, and I turned around. She was standing in the doorway behind me.

"What?" I asked.

"Just Abra. She's so cute."

I grin. "Thanks."

Just then, Angela comes out of the kitchen area. "Hi Bella. And who's this?" She motions to Alice.

"This is Alice, Edward's sister. She's a friend. Alice, this is Angela."

Angela nods. "Hi Alice. Wait. I think Abra's said something about you."

Alice raises her eyebrows, looking highly flattered and excited. "She has?"

Angela nods. "Yeah. Let me think… yeah… a week ago or so she named a doll after you."

Alice smiles. "Cool! Can I see it?"

Angela nods. "Come upstairs." She leans over to whisper to me, "It's one of the old rag dolls."  
"Which one?" I ask.

"The more beat up of the pair."

I grin. "That should be a surprise."

We walk upstairs, and Angela rummages in a box for a minute and pulls a very beat up rag doll out.

"This," she says "is Alice."  
Alice's eyes widen. "That's me?" She looks a bit incredulous.

Angela nods. "This is you."

I laugh, and then Alice begins to laugh as well. "That's not quite what I was expecting."

I shrug. "You can never tell with a 23-month-old."

Angela grins. "Abra will be done. I'll get her ready to go. Very nice to meet you Alice."

Alice nods. "Nice to meet you too. And my other self."

Angela laughs, and we follow her down the stairs.

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I carry Abra out the door, picking up her car seat on the way out so she can go to Alice's apartment. It takes a few minutes to get the seat in the car, and to get Abra in the seat, but after a short struggle, we are driving down Broadway, and Abra is sitting in the back babbling contentedly to her whale.

We arrive at Alice's house quickly, and I get Abra out. Alice parks the car, meets us in the lobby and takes us up to her apartment. Jasper is working late, she tells me, and so he won't be back for dinner.

The smells of spaghetti and tomato sauce are wafting off of the stove a few minutes later, while I sit on the floor and play with Abra.

Soon we are sitting down to eat, and Abra just has some bread, as she already ate. I smile contentedly as the hot food settles in my stomach, and I push back my chair.

"Thanks for the food and everything Alice. It was really great."

She nods. "I'll drive you back. I've got the bags and everything in my car."

I nod back. "Awesome."

She grins at me. "It will be when I come over to dress you up! How about next Saturday?" I look askance, but she begins again. "You can't get out of this."

I frown. "Okay. Next Saturday then. Wait, no. Next Saturday is Abra's birthday. You can come to the party if you like, but there won't be time. How about the twelfth?"

She nods. "The twelfth of February. Okay. What time next Saturday? And how many people can I bring with me?"

I shrug. "As long as I know everyone who comes, and you tell me how many two days in advance, as many as you think will fit in my room. And around two in the afternoon would be good."

She nods. "Okay. See you Saturday."

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**A/N: This is probably my longest chapter ever. It just didn't want to end! Anyway, next chapter is Abra's birthday party, as well as Bella's dress up day. **

**The chapter after than will be a couple of days after February 12****th****… you won't have to think to hard to figure that one out. :D**

**I'd like to thank all of my readers, and Sarah, babblingqueenm, babylopez2008 (who reviewed two chapters!), EdwardsCandyCane, quailgal101, xxxxParvati-Patilxxxx, SunnySkies4Life, asianpuppy13, bloodredeclipse, cullen_girl_93, skittleysweet, twfanforever, Blue-eyedBlondie, truemidnite, hhawkes, ShikaGirl1990, iwillnverfidu, DuCkSoFdArKnEsS, aquatink12, ObessiveReader09, and xTwilightLove (who also reviewed two chapters!) for reviewing!! This story is now 101 pages (double-spaced) on Word, and more than 25,000 words! It is only by all of your inspirational reviews that I keep writing!!**

**Thanks so much, and keep up the good work!!!**


	20. Seasons of Love A

**A/N: Here goes another one! Many of the chapter titles from now on will be titles of songs from a musical called Rent. All of these belong to the late Jonathon Larson and his family. I'm not making any money off of this story. **

**Alice's point of view. Abra's birthday party!!**

**Chapter 20- Seasons of Love A**

A birthday party! I could hardly stand it. After Bella left I was skipping in circles around the dining room of the apartment.

I was still skipping when Jasper arrived home. He moved slowly towards me, and cautiously felt my forehead. "How long have you been skipping for?"

I shrugged. "I don't know."

"Why?"

"Remember Abra? Yeah, well, this Saturday is her birthday party."

He nodded. "And so you are skipping because?"

I skipped faster. "Because I can invite as many people as I want as long as Bella knows all of them, and everyone will fit in her room, and I tell her who's coming. So that means Edward and you and I can go to a birthday party!!" I gave him a huge grin.

He nodded. "Is that it?"

I shook my head. "Nope! Guess!"

He looked thoughtful.

I giggled.

"You're excited to go shopping for birthday presents."

I nodded rapidly. "Yeah!"

He nodded much more slowly. "Don't buy anything very expensive. And you can calm down now."

I pouted. "Why?"

"Why which?"

"Why both?"

"Don't buy anything too expensive because Bella won't like it, and calm down because otherwise I'll need to lock you in your closet. No- actually, your closet's too big. I'll lock you in _my _closet."

My eyes widened, and I stopped skipping. "Yes, sir!" I saluted.

Jasper rolled his eyes.

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I had called Edward, and invited him to the party, and had gone shopping for presents (all were Jasper-approved). Now it was time to e-mail Bella and tell her who was coming.

_To: _

_From: _

_RE: Abra's Party_

_Hi  
It's Alice!! I've invited Edward and Jasper, and I myself am coming. I hope you don't mind if we come with presents. Mine are all Jasper-approved… Jasper said to tell you that. _

_See you Saturday!_

_Alice_

An hour or two later, a reply appeared in my inbox

_To: _

_From: _

_RE: Abra's Party_

_Hello_

_Thanks for letting me know. Tell Jasper that I'm glad he approved your present, and I would have been very worried if he had not._

_Bella_

I replied.

_To: _

_From: _

_RE: Abra's Party_

_I'm offended. You don't trust my judgment of what Abra will like?_

_Alice_

She replied soon afterwards.

_To: _

_From: _

_RE: Abra's Party_

_I think you would know what Abra would like, you just have no sense of moderation, and so you have no idea what _I _will approve. _

_Bella_

I frowned. She was probably right.

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Saturday dawned, bright and cold. I had the presents ready, and was pacing back and forth across the living room floor by the time two o'clock arrived. Finally Jasper walked across the room, put his hand on my shoulder and forced me to sit down and watch TV with him.

At two thirty he decided it was time to leave, and we walked over to Harvard. He hadn't been in Bella's dorm before, so I had let him know a few things.

"Jasper?"

"Yeah?"

"About Bella's dorm."

"Yeah?"

"Well, it's about the size of my closet."

"Your closet?" He raised his eyebrows.

I nodded. "Yeah. My closet. And the furnishings are pretty bare, too."

He nodded.

"Just to prepare you."

He nodded again.

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A few minutes before three I knocked on Bella's dorm room door. She opened and smiled. "Hi Alice! Hi Jasper!"

Abra came up behind her. "Look mama! It's Aliss!"

Bella smiled down at her. "Yeah. That's Alice. And that's Jasper."

Jasper waved.

Abra hid behind her mother's legs. Bella picked her up, and Abra leaned her head against her mother's shoulder.

Bella indicated we should come in, and we followed her into the room.

It was transformed. There were streamers on the walls, and on the bay window on the opposite wall. On the table in the center of the room were a homemade-looking birthday cake, and some plates of fruit, and a platter of vegetables with dip.

I set the two presents from Jasper and myself on the bed, where a couple of packages already were.

A few minutes later, Edward arrived with two more presents, and set them on the bed. Bella checked her watch. "Angela should be here soon. Ben said they would be here a little after three."

Almost as soon as she was done saying that, a knock came on the door. Bella opened it, and it was Angela and Ben.

Angela embraced Bella, and Abra ran over to greet Ben with a hug.

They set their presents on the bed.

Bella looked around. "Now we can cut the cake." She counted the people in the room (seven- me, Jasper, Edward, Abra, Angela, Ben, and herself) and cut the cake into eight slices. She set each slice on a plate, and put the last one on the counter. People sat down everywhere, in the one chair, which was at Bella's desk, Abra in her highchair, on the window seat, in a cleared space cleared on the bed, on the counter.

I took a bite of the cake. "Wow, Bella. This is really good. Did you make it?"

She nodded. "Yeah. There's a communal kitchen downstairs that nobody ever uses."

Edward nodded. "I haven't even seen it myself. I've only heard rumors of it. Where is it anyway?"

"You go into the office, and there's a doorway off to the left side, down the hallway a little bit. It's not easy to find."

Jasper raised his fork, as he sat on the counter. "Bella, this is really very good."

She blushed. "Thanks."

Ben nodded. "It's some of the best cake I've had in a while."

Angela slapped his arm, grinning. "Hey!"

Ben looked at her. "What? I didn't say it was the very best cake I'd had in a while. I said it was _some _of the best cake I'd had in a while."

Angela shrugged. "Okay. Whatever."

Abra sat in her high chair, methodically spooning cake into her mouth, though not always aiming quite correctly. There was frosting all around her mouth.

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A while later, when everyone had finished the food they wanted to eat, it was time for Abra to open presents. When Bella handed Abra the first of her presents, she seemed hardly to know what to do with it. I wondered whether Bella had been able to get her any presents for Hannukah, and then I realized that Bella had been in the hospital during Hannukah. Bella demonstrated ripping open the wrapping paper, and Abra caught on immediately. She ripped like there was no tomorrow, and seemed surprised when she discovered something was inside the paper, the point was not just to rip up shiny paper.

She examined the book closely, looking at it upside down, and then right side up. She pointed to the line of ducks on the cover and said to Bella "Duckies!" Bella nodded. "Ducks. That's right." The book was _Make Way for the Ducklings_, which was one of my favorites.

Abra kept on ripping, and getting surprised at the things inside the paper. By the end of the party, she had gotten a couple of books, a wooden whale on wheels, and a stuffed seal. She had a huge grin on her face, and Bella was smiling beautifully.

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**A/N: That's the end. Bella's dress up day was postponed to next chapter, because I am done writing. This chapter didn't really flow right for me, so I hope it seems satisfactory to you guys. **

**Anyway, thanks to all of my readers and to all of my reviewers, of whom I'm too tired to list!! Keep up the good work, and there'll be a new chapter soon!! **


	21. Today For You

**A/N: Here goes another one… Again, credit to Jonathon Larson for chapter titles. **

**Bella's dress up day, in her point of view. And yes, we do have a Friday the 13****th**** this year. **

**Chapter 21- Today For You**

I yawned. I looked at the calendar. It was Thursday, February 12th. Wait. It was _Thursday, February 12__th_? I sighed. I wish the day were already over and done with, even though tomorrow was Friday the 13th. Friday the 13th had never concerned me.

I got up, and woke Abra up accidentally in the process. I was early delivering her to daycare, but Angela seemed truly immune to grumpiness. She was aptly named.

Only an hour or so later, a knock came on my door, and I let Alice in. She carried a number of bags, and set them all down on the table in the center of my room. I felt sure they contained makeup, a substance I hated with a passion. She would have a good time trying to get _that _on me.

I sat down on my bed and watched her as she bustled around my room, rummaging through the bags from our shopping trip, which I had yet to go through.

A long time later, she plopped down on the bed next to me. "What's wrong with you?"

I gave a confused look. "A lot of things? Sleep-deprivation?"  
She rolled her eyes. "No! Why haven't you opened or worn any of the stuff we bought?"

"You bought it."

"I bought, then."

"I didn't want to."  
"Why ever not?"

I shrugged. "I don't know."

She laughed. "One of the few things."

I frowned. "I'm not some sort of genius. _Any _sort of genius, for that matter. I just work hard."

Alice rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Anyway. Which outfit do you want to wear?" She pointed out a number of outfits set up on the window seat, which I had managed not to notice.

"None."

"Come _on _Bella!"

"Okay, that one." I closed my eyes and pointed randomly.

Alice laughed. "You can't wear the table."

I gave her an annoyed look. I picked out the simplest of the outfits, a flowing dark blue skirt about knee-length, and a light blue layered shirt a little more low cut than I was normally comfortable with.

She grinned. "I knew you would pick that one!"

I frowned at her.

She gave me a funny look. "Are you not having fun or something?"

I rolled my eyes. "No duh. And I'm tired."

She shrugged. "Too bad, now let's get going."

"With what?"

Alice thought for a minute. "Put the outfit on first." She turned around, and I changed.

"You can turn back around now Alice."

"Oh, okay."

"What next?"

She thought again. "Hair."  
"What about it?"

"Take your hair out,"

I pulled my bun out, putting a couple of pins on my desk, and pulled the rubber band off of the end of my braid. I unraveled the braid with my fingers, and my hair fell down my back, in thick dark brown curls.

I pulled it in front of me and sat down again.

Alice looked me up and down. "I would almost tell you to leave it like that…" She trailed off.

"But?"  
"But I want to play with it."

"But it's annoying down!"

"And it's pretty."

I muttered something to myself, which Alice didn't catch, something I was very glad of. She made me turn sideways, and stood up, pulling a brush through my hair. After a while, the brush was gone, and her fingers were pulling my hair into some sort of do-up that I couldn't see. Eventually she was done, and I ran my fingers over the back of my head. Alice had done a sort of half-ponytail, with the top part twisted into a bun, and secured with the pins I had set on my desk.

"It's good, Alice."

"Thanks. And thanks for letting me play with your hair."

"Sure. What's next?"

"Makeup!"  
I groaned. "Do I _have _to?"

Alice grinned at me and nodded happily. "Yep!"

"Just a little bit, okay?"

Alice nodded. "Okay. I promise not to go overboard."

I sat for an hour, out of view of my mirror, as Alice put on makeup, took off makeup, and put on more makeup, seemingly taking forever to decide exactly what to do with my face. I had almost nodded off when she shook me and pointed to the mirror. I got up, and walked over.

I almost didn't recognize myself. My hair curled its way down my back, reaching past my waist. It contrasted nicely with my blue outfit. My lips were shiny and smooth, not chapped and rough as they usually were. I closed one eye, and noticed that Alice had applied a small amount of eye shadow. She hadn't gone _too _overboard, but it was certainly a lot more makeup than I ever would have put on myself.

I turned back to Alice. "What now?"

"I've got a surprise!"

"What sort of surprise?" I was immediately suspicious.

"A good one!"

"I hate surprises."  
"You get one question, then."

"Are you taking me out somewhere?"

She grinned. "Yes…"  
I sat down on the bed stubbornly. "I refuse to go."  
She frowned. "Please Bella?"

"No."

"Why not?"  
"I- I- no." I turned around to face the wall, and tried to keep myself from crying. I sniffed unhappily.

Alice came behind me and put her hand on my shoulder. "What's the matter Bella?"  
I sniffed again.

"Bella, tell me what the matter is!" She sounded serious this time.

"I- I- I'm" I stopped.

"You're what?"  
"Scared" I whispered.

Alice sounded confused. "Scared?"

"Yes. I'm scared."

"Of what?"

"Of going out in public like this."  
"Why?"  
"I'll be noticed."

"Should that make a difference?"

"To me it does."

"Why? Why are you so scared of being noticed, Bella?"

"You're starting to sound like a therapist, Alice"

"Oh." She giggled. "Sorry. But I _would_ like to know…"  
"I know you'd like to know."  
"Then why don't you tell me?"

"Because I'm scared."

"Of me?"

"I guess…"

"Why?"

"I don't know. You might tell someone."

"I wouldn't!"

I looked up at her. "It's hard to… trust."

She nodded. "I understand."

She looked so sad then that I had to tell her. "Alice?"

"Yes?'

"It's just…"

"Just what?'

"I don't like to call attention to myself."

She nodded. "Why?"

"Because, I might get… hurt."

"Hurt?"

"Can we just leave it at that? Please?"

Alice nodded. "So, is it okay if we go out to lunch with Edward?"

"Where?"

"There's a little café down in Harvard Square."

I nodded. "Okay. Was that the surprise?"

She slapped a hand over her mouth. "I gave it away!"

I laughed. "Let's go."

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**A/N: That was intense. However, it was very nice to finally get a chapter out. **

**Notice how Edward calls Bella's hair color 'chocolate' and she calls it 'dark brown'? **

**Next chapter will be in Edward's reactions and other things. **

**Thanks to all of my readers and reviewers. I'm sitting here on my laptop feeling happier than should be allowed from reading all of those reviews!!!**

**Keep it up!!**


	22. Light My Candle

**A/N: Okay. Here goes another one. It's the chapter you've all been waiting for. Edward's point of view for the first part, Bella's for the second part. **

**Chapter 22- Light My Candle**

I sat in the café in Harvard Square waiting.

Five minutes later, I was doing the exact same thing.

And five minutes later? The exact. Same. Thing. I wondered what was taking Alice so long.

And finally, five minutes later, Alice walked in. A beautiful woman I thought I recognized accompanied her. Was it- could it be? It was- Bella.

Her amazing dark chocolate hair was only partly pulled back; it fell in incredible thick curls all the way down her back. Her outfit didn't scream 'Alice!' it looked natural and totally Bella's style, if a little more formal than usual. The blues contrasted beautifully with her hair and her eyes, and that was when I realized something. Today was Thursday, and Saturday- yes- Saturday was Valentine's Day. Saturday! I had to get planning!

Back in the present, I smiled at Bella as she and Alice sat down across the table from me. She gave a shy smile back. I pointed up to the chalkboard above the counter. "You guys want to get anything?"

Bella nodded. "I'll go look?"

"Go ahead. Alice, you going to have anything?"

Alice nodded, and Bella got up to go look. Alice got up to, and whispered in my ear.

"She's really nervous, so be nice."

I nodded. "Thanks."

She grinned, and went to look at the selection.

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I sat in my bedroom and thought. I looked at the list in my hand.

_Get roses_

_Make reservations at Common Ground_

_Write directions_

_Talk to Alice and Jasper_

Was that all I needed to do? It sounded so simple. How could it sound so simple and be so complicated?

I frowned, and stuck the list in my pocket to walk over to Alice and Jasper's apartment.

As I walked through Harvard Yard, I called Jasper.

"Hey Jazz"

"Hey Edward. What's up?"

"Guess"

"Hmmm. The day after tomorrow is Valentine's Day?"

"Yeah…"

"And you're going to ask Bella out?"

"Yeah…"

"And you're coming to consult me on what I did for Alice's and my first date."  
"Yeah. You got me."

"I do don't I!"

"Come on over, Alice is at class. She won't be back for a while."  
"Okay, thanks."

"Anytime"

Five minutes later, I was sitting on the couch in Alice and Jasper's apartment.

"So what did you do for your first date with Alice?"

Jasper rolled his eyes at me. "Asked her out."

"How?"

"You have a plan. I know you do."

"I do, but how did _you _do it?"

"I just went up to her one day after class and asked her."

"Oh."

"How are you doing it?"

I told him.

When I was finished, he nodded. "That's a good idea."

"Thanks."

"You going to order flowers?"

"Yeah. Do you know a good place?"

"Yeah, there's a place over on Mass Ave from the bakery Alice likes so much."

"Awesome. Thanks."

"Call if you have any more questions!"

"I will."

"See you."

"See you soon Jazz."

I left the apartment and walked down to Mass Ave. I walked along until I came to a little florist's shop with lilies painted on the window. I walked inside, and a bell tinkled. An older lady came out of a little doorway.

"Can I help you?"

"I was just looking around."

"Something for Valentine's Day?"

"Yeah."

She smiled at me. "The Valentine's bouquets are over that way" She pointed.

I nodded. "Thanks." And went over to look.

There were so many beautiful flowers, lilies, roses, chrysanthemums, daisies, and all sorts of other things that I didn't know the names of. I finally decided on a bunch of light pink lilies and some small white sprays of flowers called babies breath, that would be delivered fresh, with a card, to the lobby of the dorm on Saturday, and a message would be sent to Bella for her to pick it up.

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Later, I sat at my desk and began to write out notes in neat cursive handwriting. I called the Common Ground Café, and made reservations, and got everything ready for what I had planned.

I lay in bed that night, wondering what Bella would think, and hoping she would like it.

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**BPOV**

Today was Valentine's Day. Not that it made any sort of difference to me. I refused to hope for anything.

I had dropped Abra off at daycare, and was sitting at my desk typing a paper when a knock came at my door.

I opened it to see one of the dorm messengers. "Message for Bella Swan?"

"That's me."

He handed me a note. "Here you are."

I unfolded the note. _Package for pickup in the office._

I wondered who would be sending me a package. I walked down the stairs, not trusting the elevator, just two weeks ago it had stopped with someone stuck inside it, in between two floors.

I walked through the lobby, and into the office, and pushed the note across the desk to the secretary. "I had a package for pickup?"

"Name?"

"Bella Swan."

She nodded, and went into the back room. She came back out, carrying a bouquet of flowers with a card attached. My eyes widened. She grinned at me. "Not expecting this?"

I shook my head. "No. I wasn't."  
"Well, here you are anyway." She handed me the bouquet, and I walked back upstairs.

Back in my room, I put the flowers in a vase, and sat down at my table to read the card. It was written in flowing cursive handwriting.

_Dear Bella,_

_There is a package for where Abra's cake originated. I like vanilla better than chocolate, how about you?_

I grinned. A little riddle. Someone, I knew it had to be was Edward, as he was the only one who would send me a note like this, and had been to Abra's party, had gotten me something, and hidden it in the kitchen where the vanilla was stored.

I walked down the stairs and into the office. The secretary looked up.

"Back again?"

I held up the card. "Someone's made a little scavenger hunt for me."

She nodded. "Ah."

I wondered whether she knew who had set it up, she probably did, but I didn't ask.

I walked down the hallway into the little kitchen, and looked in the cupboard where the vanilla was stored. Under the bottle of vanilla was tucked a little note.

_Dear Bella,_

_Now that you've found this, you can go find a Walrus and a Carpenter. You will have missed the poor oysters, I'm afraid. _

I grinned. "The Walrus and the Carpenter" was one of my favorite poems, and it was found in _Through the Looking Glass_, by Lewis Carroll. I was to go to the library.

I stuffed the note in my pocket and walked across Harvard Yard to the library that would have _Through the Looking Glass_. There was only one copy, and I paged through it until I came to "The Walrus and the Carpenter". On the page right at the end of the poem where it said "'Oh Oysters' said the Carpenter/'You've had a pleasant run/Shall you be trotting home again?'/But answer came there none/And this was scarcely odd because/They'd eaten every one", there was a green post-it note.

_Dear Bella,_

_A certain shopping-fanatic acquaintance of mine has a closet where she keeps all of her things. Look for something seldom worn._

I stuffed this note in my pocket along with the other one, and walked down to the MIT campus. I knocked on Alice's door.

Jasper answered. "Hi Bella!"

"Hi Jasper."

"And why do I have the pleasure of seeing you this lovely Saturday morning?"

"A note." I pulled the said note out of my pocket and read it to him.

"Ah. Well, follow me." He led me through the apartment, and opened the door of a closet bigger than my whole dorm room.

I gaped. "This place is huge."

"The closet?"  
"Yeah." I shook my head. "I can't possibly imagine needing so many clothes."

Jasper shrugged. "I'll leave you to it."

I ventured into the closet, and walked to the back. In the very back corner, there was a very old and lumpy-looking sweater that looked as though it had been knitted for a Christmas present, seeing as it was cover haphazardly with reindeer.

It was certainly "seldom worn". In fact, it was probably _never _worn. I pulled it off of its hanger, and a note fell out. I put the sweater back, and picked up the note.

_Dear Bella, _it said

_I hardly ever get visitors._

And that was all. Was he asking me to find a place that people didn't visit? Was he asking me to come visit him? I didn't know, but the second one was a lot easier to figure out, and so far the riddles had not been very challenging, so I decided that it would be the way to go.

Ten minutes later, I was walking up the stairs to the fifth floor, and then along the fifth floor hallway, and then standing in front of Edward's door.

I looked at the door. I bit my lip, and knocked.

Nothing happened. Then, a something paper hit my toes with a crinkling noise. He had slipped a bit of paper under the door.

_Dear Bella_

_Come in. This needs to be said in person._

In person? What was he going to tell me? I hesitated for a second, but then opened the door. It was unlocked and I stepped into Edward's room.

Edward stood in the doorframe of the room, the light from the window behind him lighting up the ends of his hair.

"Bella?" He asked. He looked very nervous. "Will you go out with me?"  
I opened my mouth, and closed it, totally not expecting _this. _

"Bella?" He asked, and I realized I had not said anything.

"Oh Edward. Yes. Yes!" I smiled.

He smiled back. "Well, that's good, seeing as I've made dinner reservations."

I laughed. "Where?"

"There's a little place down in Dorchester with this great design, and really good food. It's one of my favorite places in Boston."

"It sounds lovely."

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**A/N: Common Ground Café is a real place. The café in Harvard Square in the beginning of this chapter is not based on anything real, though I'm sure there are a number of cafes in Harvard Square. I just can't remember any.**

**All credit goes to Lewis Carroll for **_**Through the Looking Glass, **_**and "The Walrus and the Carpenter". Any mistakes are my bad memorization. (I memorized it two and a half years ago…)**

**I hope everyone is at least partially satisfied in the Edward/Bella interaction that you all were asking for. I promise more next chapter. **

**Thanks to all of my readers and reviewers, your encouragement is what keeps me writing!**

**Keep up the amazing work!! Next chapter is their date!!**


	23. Out Tonight

**A/N: Another chapter for all of you. Both points of view, because it needed to be that way. Each change will be clearly labeled. I'll start out with Edward. **

**Again, all recognizable places, characters, situations, and names belong to their respective owners. I am making no money off of this story, or anything else for that matter. **

**Chapter 23- Out Tonight**

Outside, I was the personification of calm. Inside my mind was thinking "She said yes!" over and over and over again. We had discussed specifics for a few minutes, and she had left, most likely off to prepare.

I was pacing back and forth in my room, trying to keep myself from jumping up and down and running in circles like a five-year-old. It was a struggle. Finally, I was able to sit myself down on my bed and call Jasper.

"Hi Jazz."

"Hi Edward, you sound excited."

"She said yes!"

"Well, of course she said yes. What did you think she was going to say?"

"I don't know."

Jasper laughed. "It's quite obvious how in love with you she is."

"It is?"

I knew Jasper had just rolled his eyes. "You're clueless, aren't you."

"Am not!"

"You are too, anyway, what did you call me about?'

"I don't know. I needed to call someone. I'm nervous."

"Okay. Call Carlisle and talk to him"

"Good idea. Thank Jazz."

"Anytime Edward."

I hung up, and called Carlisle.

The phone rang, and rang finally I got the message machine.

"Hello, this is the Cullen res-" It was cut off.

"Hello?" It was Esme.

"Hi mom, it's Edward."

"Hi Edward, why are you calling?"

"I wanted to talk to Carlisle."

"Okay, what about?"

"Mom you know what day it is, right?"

"Of course… one sec, let me guess… You asked Bella out."

I laughed. "Yeah."

"Did she accept? She did, right?"

"Yeah."

"Edward, remember, just be your natural self. Be polite, and don't force anything on her."

"Okay mom."

"Here's Carlisle."

"Thanks. Hi dad."

"Hello Edward"

"I asked Bella out, and she accepted, and I was calling you for advice."

I could hear Carlisle's smile. "Took you guys long enough."

"What?"

"Everyone _else _in the house could tell you two were in love after ten minutes of seeing you. I'm pretty sure even Abra had it figured out." He laughed.

I sighed. "Thanks dad."

"Anyway Edward, like Esme said, be yourself, and be polite. Bella has more to her than any of us know about, and you have to take that into account. Also, make sure Abra's got somewhere to stay."

"She goes to daycare."

"Good."

"What should I wear?"

"Where are you two going?"  
"Common Ground."

"Don't wear anything too fancy. I'm guessing Alice will help with Bella's outfit?"

"Yeah. I'm going to call her."

"Make sure to let her know of that then."

"Anything else?"

"Have some fun!"

"Okay. Thanks dad."

I hung up and sat down on my bed, glad I had gotten so lucky with my parents. I called Alice next.

"Hey Alice."

"Hi Edward. Bella just e-mailed me."

"She did?"  
"Yeah, she filled me in. She sounds really happy from the way she's writing."

"I'm glad."

"Where are you two going tonight?"

"Common Ground."

"Good, Bella will love it, I'm sure."  
"I thought so too."  
"And I should make sure she doesn't dress too formally?"

"Yeah. That would be great. Thanks so much Alice."

"You're very welcome. You know how much I love the chance to dress people up."

"I'm well aware."

"Bye Edward."

"Bye."

I stood up, and walked around the room. I needed to get my car! I knew I had forgotten something. It was parked in the garage at Alice and Jasper's apartment, so I walked over to retrieve it.

I knocked on the door and Jasper answered.

"Hi Edward"  
"Hi, could I have the keys to the garage."

He went back into the apartment. "Here. Bring them back when you're done."

I grinned at him. "No, I'm going to _steal _them."

He rolled his eyes at me. "Right. Have fun."

I grinned. "I will. How many cars do you think I can drive at once?" And with that, I walked down the stairs to the garage in the basement, drove my silver Volvo outside, parked it at the curb, and ran back upstairs to return the garage keys to Jasper.

"Thanks Jazz."  
"Anytime."

I drove the Volvo over to Harvard, and parked it in a small lot near the dorm building. I then walked over to the florist's to pick up some more flowers for Bella.

The bell tinkled as I walked in to the same little shop. The same elderly lady came out of the doorway. "Hello again. What can I get for you this time?"

"I'd like a dozen roses, please."

"That seems to be in high demand today." She grinned at me.

I shrugged, and pointed to the calendar. "Might it have something to do with the fact that it is Valentine's Day?"

She shrugged. "That's a good point. Would you like your roses now or later?"

"Could I have them delivered to the same place around six o'clock?"  
"Sure thing. You want to write the address down again for me?"

I wrote it down. "Thanks very much."  
"You're very welcome."

I walked back down the street, and looked at my watch. It was almost five o'clock. I had to get ready. I walked quickly up to my room and began to prepare.

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**BPOV**

I was sitting on my bed, bouncing slightly on the lumpy mattress, and thinking 'He asked me out! He asked me out!' over and over again, when a knock came on the door. I opened it to see Alice.

"Hi Alice!"

"Hi Bella!"  
"Let me guess, you're here to dress me up!"

"Good job. Now let's get going."

She gave me a couple of choices. There was a long dark green dress with a modest cut, but a weird sort of skirt, the blue skirt I had worn on Thursday with a white blouse, and a sweater, and a dark red sweater with a pair of black pants. I chose the blue outfit, and put it on.

Alice then grinned at me. "Sit down. I'm going to do your hair."

I sat, knowing she was not one to mess with. She pulled my hair out of its bun, and began combing it. It was still wet from my recent shower, and so it hung in light waves, rather than the usual curls. This made it a couple inches longer than usual, and Alice made me stand up.

"Do you have a hair dryer?"

"No."

"Well, it needs to dry, so just leave it down, and I'll do your makeup."

I sighed, and sat back down. "Okay."

Twenty minutes later, my makeup was done, and my curls had begun to return. Alice started combing my hair again, and then stopped. She was probably thinking about what to do with all, of it. Finally she decided, and pulled some hair from the side of my head and began twisting it.

"Here" She handed the lock to me to hold. "Hold this for a sec." She began twisting the hair on the other side, and then pulled it to the back of my head. "Hand me that other chunk.

I handed it to her.

"Hair tie please."

I picked a blue hair tie off of the desk in front of me, and handed it back to her.

"Thanks. Go look in the mirror." She instructed.

I went to look. "Thanks Alice, it looks really good."

"You're welcome. Now let's pick out shoes."

"No heels, please?"

"Not even small ones?"

"Really small ones are okay, but I wouldn't really want to have any."

She nodded, and dug around in the bag she had brought with her. She handed me a pair of black ballet flats. "Will these work?"

"Yeah. Thanks Alice"

"Sure. When is Edward going to pick you up?"

I checked my watch. Ten minutes to six. "Really soon."

She nodded, and picked up her bag. "Okay, see you, and have a good time!"

I sat on my bed, and waited, paging through _Mansfield Park _without really reading any of it. Ten minutes later, and six o'clock, on the dot, there was a knock on the door.

I ran over and opened it, and Edward stood there, with a bouquet of roses in his hands. I gestured to the table behind me. "You already-"

He cut me off with a smile. "You deserve more than one."

I shrugged. "Okay." And I went to find a vase to put them in.

After I had put them away, he held out his hand. "Ready to go?"

I nodded, and took his hand. He led me down the stairs, through the lobby, and outside to a small parking lot, where he opened the passenger door of a silver Volvo, motioning for me to step inside. I got in, and he walked around to the driver's seat.

As we drove, I began to ask questions. "Where are we going?"

"We're going to a place in Lower Mills that I really like."

"What's it like?"

"I'd like to give you a bit of a surprise."

"A good surprise?"

"A good surprise."

I nodded, and stopped talking.

A while later, we drove up in front of a small building with a sign that said 'Common Ground' in large letters. Half of the wall had no windows, and was painted with a mural, and the other half was punctuated every few feet with windows that revealed a dimly lit interior. We walked inside.

Following the directions on the sign that said 'Seat yourself' we walked into the restaurant. It resembled a treehouse, with wood floors, and many different sized booths each in its own semi-enclosed space, decorated with pieces of wood. It was impossible to describe well, and a most amazing surprise.

"This is great, Edward!"

"Don't you think so? My uncle showed it to me."

"Its an amazing find, for sure."

"Where should we sit?"

I pointed to a booth in the back corner of the restaurant, a little table surrounded by a bench, with a doorway opening to it. There was a little wooden shingled roof on top. "Let's sit there."

Edward nodded. "Okay, good choice."

Every choice would have been a good choice, every booth was so cool, but I didn't say so. We sat down, and a woman in a long dress with a long braid to rival mine came over to give us menus.

"Here you two are. Would you like any drinks?"

I turned the menu over. "I'd like a hot apple cider, please."

Edward looked up. "I'd like the same."  
The woman nodded, and left us to look at our menus.  
We ordered, and the food came quickly, very warm, and very good. Every once in a while I would look up from my food and notice Edward watching me when he thought I wasn't looking. I wonder what he was thinking about me. The time passed easily, as we chatted about Abra, about his family, and about school.

Edward paid the bill, and we walked out into the crisp February air to his car. It was snowing lightly, and I smiled at the beauty of it.

We drove back to Harvard, and Edward walked me back up the stairs to my room. I had snow on my shoulders and hair, and he began to lightly brush it off. I lost my balance, and leaned forward a little to steady myself, but he must have taken the leaning forward differently, because he leaned in to kiss me.

I gasped, and quickly pulled away, sprinting into my room, slamming the door shut and locking it quickly. I sat down on the window seat to calm myself down, but it was impossible. I couldn't shake the feeling that he was still out there. I tiptoed across the room to the door and looked out the little peephole. The hallway was thankfully empty. I was okay, or at least, that's what I tried to convince myself.

I sat down on my bed, and noticed Abra's crib. How was I going to tell Angela I wasn't able to pick her up? I hoped she would check her e-mail. I typed a quick note to her, sent it off, and then went straight to bed.

Still, I couldn't sleep, so I got up and began a handwritten letter of explanation.

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**A/N: This chapter is longer than some of my other stories! I did, however, want to get that last scene all in the same chapter, so I could get Bella's past out more quickly. I hope you all enjoyed that (the first part at least).  
Edward's got such a great family, doesn't he? Bella's past will be revealed in the next few chapters, probably the one after the next one, or the one after that. **

**There is a link to a picture of the Common Ground Café on my profile. **

**Thanks so much to all of my readers and reviewers!! Please keep up all of your good work. **


	24. Another Day

**A/N: NOTE: THE RATING HAS BEEN CHANGED TO 'T'. It will take effect next chapter. This chapter is still under the 'K+' category. Don't read it if you aren't comfortable. **

**Another chapter… and I'm not exactly sure what is going to go into it. Bella's point of view. Very short, I apologize, but a new one should be coming soon!**

**Chapter 24- Another Day**

The sun came up, and I was still writing and crumpling up pieces of paper. My recycling bin under my desk was almost full, but I didn't have the energy or the will to go out and empty it. I had nothing more I wanted to write, so I decided to check my e-mail.

I opened up my laptop and logged in.

**Bella, you have 5 new messages.**

Five new messages? I knew Angela had probably e-mailed me, but who else would have? I opened my inbox. There was one from Angela, as I had expected, three from Edward, and one from Alice.

First, Angela's note.

_To: _

_From: _

_RE: Abra's Daycare_

_Dear Bella,_

_It is fine for Abra to stay here. She's been asking for you however, so come and pick her up as soon as you can!_

_Angela_

I replied.

_To: _

_From: _

_RE: Abra's Daycare_

_Dear Angela,_

_Thanks so much for taking care of Abra. I will probably be over to pick her up sometime this afternoon._

_Bella_

Next, I read the first of Edward's e-mails.

_To: _

_From: _

_RE: Please Reply_

_Dear Bella,_

_What happened last night? Whatever I did, I'm very sincerely sorry. What can I do to help? _

_Edward_

I bit my lip, and read the letter over a couple of times. I decided to read the next one before I figured out whether or not to reply.

_To: _

_From: _

_RE: Please Reply_

_Dear Bella,_

_I wish you would e-mail me back. I'm worried about you. Is there some way we could talk? I really wish I could help, or just know what I did wrong. _

_Edward_

I decided to read the next one. Unlike the last two, dated just after I had escaped into my room, this one was dated about three in the morning. I didn't know exactly what to think of that, so I read it.

_To: _

_From; _

_RE: Please Reply!_

_Dear Bella,_

_I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have tried to kiss you. I didn't mean to hurt you, and I hope you can accept my apology. Please reply._

_Edward_

I closed the e-mail without replying and opened up Alice's note.

_To; _

_From: _

_RE: Last night?_

_Dear Bella,_

_Edward is really worried about you, but he won't tell me what happened. I'd just like to let you know that he's really sorry about whatever he did, and he really regrets it, and that I'm available to talk to whenever you like._

_Alice_

I replied.

_To: _

_From: _

_RE: Last night?_

_Dear Alice,_

_I'd like to be able to talk to you sometime. I'm tutoring tonight, and I have classes tomorrow morning, but tomorrow evening I'm free. When is a convenient time for you? _

_Bella_

She replied soon afterwards.

_To: _

_From: _

_RE: Last night?_

_Tomorrow evening (that's the 16__th__, right?) works just fine for me. Do you want me to come there, or do you want to come here?  
Alice_

I typed an answer.

_To: _

_From: _

_RE: Last night?  
Yes, tomorrow evening is the sixteenth. Could you come over here around seven thirty or eight?_

_Bella_

Her answer came hardly a minute after I sent my reply.

_To: _

_From; _

_RE: Last night?_

_Sure thing. See you, and I hope you're okay. Call us if you need anything._

_Alice_

I read Alice's e-mail, and shut my laptop, and left the house to go pick up Abra.

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Later that evening, back in the apartment, I brushed the snow off of Abra, and myself, and tried not to think of Edward and what had happened while I did so. I put Abra to bed, and sat down at my desk to continue writing.

My mind flew back in time as I began to write to Edward of my childhood. Names and dates tumbled through my mind, and through my hand out onto the lined paper in my small neat handwriting. Page after page was filled up with the Valdez's, the Salmonds, and the Jewish Orphanage. Memory after memory was recorded on those pages, it could have been my published biography, was it not quite so depressing. My hand cramped, and as I shook it out, I looked up at the clock. It was late, much later than I thought it was, and so I put the papers away, where neither Abra nor anybody else would ever think of looking for them. Those papers were meant for only a select few pairs of eyes, specified right at the beginning of the letter. For the umpteenth time, I wondered what he would think once he knew, and what he had already guessed about me. I sighed, resolved to stop thinking about it, and went to bed.

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The next morning I got up early and finished the letter. Abra woke up just as I wrote the last few words. _'Then a handsome young man with a whale in his hand walked up to me, and you know the rest."_

I picked her up, got her ready to go, and took her to daycare. The subway ride was short, and soon I was stomping more new snow off of my feet on Angela's porch. She opened the door with a smile. "Why, fancy seeing you here!"

I grinned. "Such a coincidence."

Abra waved to Leah, who stood at the top of the stairs. "Fancy!"

Leah waved back. "It's fancy is it?" She smiled at Abra. "If you say so little one."

Abra nodded. "Say so."

I put her down and she walked up the stairs to Leah. Leah led her off to the kitchen where I could here Ben making breakfast, and I signed Abra in, and was about to leave when Angela caught my elbow.

"How are you doing?"

"Fine. Why?'

"Well, you don't usually leave Abra here overnight."

"I couldn't go out."

"You _couldn't_?"

I shook my head. "I couldn't."

"Care to explain?"

"Not really. Maybe some other time."

Angela nodded. "Okay. See you."

"See you."

And with that I left to go back to Harvard and my classes. Thank goodness I didn't have Medical Spanish today. I didn't want to see Edward until tomorrow. I wasn't ready to see Edward until tomorrow.

And I had a certain petite MIT student to talk to first.

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**A/N: Here's this chapter. I hope everyone enjoys it. You won't be in suspense for too long, the next chapter will be out soon; I already have part of it written. **

**Thanks so much to all of my readers and reviewers, I enjoy each and every piece of feedback I get. **

**Next chapter is… the one you've all been waiting for. Bella's past! **


	25. I Should Tell You

**A/N: Here it is! Bella's point of view. **

**Chapter 25- I Should Tell You**

It was Tuesday evening, around seven thirty, and Abra was in bed and asleep. She wouldn't wake up until the next morning, not even if the roof came crashing down around her. Well, _maybe _then. Just maybe.

Someone knocked and I checked who it was. Alice. I opened the door, and she pulled me into a hug. "How are you doing?"

I shrugged. "All right I guess."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

I nodded. "Sit down, I'm going to have to start from the very beginning."

She sat down on my bed, and I sat down in my single chair, facing her. "The very beginning?"

"I think you know that I was a week old when my parents abandoned me."

Alice nodded. "Yeah."

"Okay. They abandoned me on the steps of the Jewish orphanage in San Francisco on June 2nd 1980."

"Did they name you there?"

"Yeah. They called me Hannah Adina."

"Hannah?'

"I changed my name."

"Why?"

"Well, you're not exactly supposed to leave foster care until you're eighteen."  
"And you were?"  
"Fourteen and a half. I ran away."

"And how did you come up with Bella Swan?"

"I have always thought that the name Isabella was pretty, and I've always liked swans. I wanted a name that wasn't one you would see every day, but that wasn't too unique. I didn't want to stand out."

"You never do want to stand out."

I shrugged. "True, anyway, when they found me they figured I was about a week old, and so they gave me the birthday of May 25th. Supposedly I was well fed and healthy, and no one saw my parents or had any idea who they were. No one came looking for me, and I lived at the orphanage until I was seven months old."

"So you have no idea why they abandoned you?"

"Not really. Maybe they were young and weren't ready for a child, maybe they just didn't want me. But when I was seven months old the orphanage closed down and I was sent to the state orphanage in Sacramento. A Spanish family from Los Angeles took me in as a foster kid a month later, and I stayed with them for about eight months, until I was seventeen months old."

"They didn't adopt me?"

"No. I don't know, some foster parents just take kids in for a little bit, and then send them back to the orphanage. I guess I wasn't the perfect baby they wanted. Supposedly I cried a lot."

"Did Abra?"

"When she was younger, yes. She's a lot better behaved now."

"She seems to be. What happened next?"

When I was seventeen months old, the family that was fostering me moved to Arizona, and because I was in the state system of California, I couldn't go with them. I went back to the state orphanage for a week or two, but I was young and cute, so I got a new foster family rather quickly."

Alice nodded.

"This family was German and French, and those were the two languages spoken there, in contrast to the Spanish and English that had been spoken at my last foster home. They had another foster kid, boy of about six, who spoke Spanish, and so those three languages were my first. My first memories are of them…" I trailed off.

"What?"

I looked down. "They never really… cared. They fed me and clothed me, and gave me a bed to sleep in, and I was allowed to sit in the playroom and play, but they didn't love me or even really like me. They just regarded it as their duty to take care of children without parents, I guess. I don't really know what they thought."

"Oh Bella." She came over to me and hugged me, pulling me down to sit on the bed next to her. "Are you going to be okay talking about this?'  
"I have to Alice. I want to tell someone."

"Okay, if that's really what you want to do."

I nodded "They moved too, a month after my third birthday, and I went back to the state orphanage. After I stayed a month at the orphanage, I was fostered by another family, the Mardels, who spoke English and German." I bit my lip and stopped talking.

"Bella? You can stop if you want."

"No, no, It's just, well- this isn't the easiest thing to talk about. Remembering all these people and what it was like then. It's hard."

Alice nodded. "I would say I understand, but I guess I really don't. I wish I could understand-"

I shook my head. "You don't."

"I don't what?"

"You don't wish you could understand. It's better you don't. Anyway, every morning they would send me to the library, and I would read all day."

"Like Matilda?"

I grinned. "Kind of. Except in English and Spanish and French and German."

"Multi-lingual Matilda." She giggled.

"I guess. But continuing, they must have gotten my age down wrong on the foster parent forms, because just after my fourth birthday, I went to kindergarten. I remember having a lot of fun, and the teacher being really surprised when I brought a novel to school to read."

Alice giggled.

"I think it might have been in German, too."

Alice shook her head, a smile lighting up her face.

"So yeah, she asked me whether I could read in English too, and I said I could, and in Spanish and French as well. She looked like she was about to faint. Once she figured out where I was she gave me stuff to do separate from the class, first and second grade math worksheets, books to read, projects to do."

"What was that like?"

"It was okay. No one really liked me because they thought I was so much smarter than them, so I didn't really make any friends, but she made school fun for me, which it wouldn't have been if it had been to easy and I hadn't had friends. I guess she's one of the reasons that I'm at Harvard today."

Alice smiled. "Wow. Do you remember her name?"

I bit my lip. "Mrs. Tallis, or something like that. Not really. I stayed with that family, the Mardels, until the end of the school year; when they dropped me back off at the orphanage."

"Why?"

"Probably because I was smarter than their son, and it was lowering his self esteem to have a younger kid, especially a girl smarter than him, or something like that."

"How old was he?"

"A second grader, I think. Their dropping me off turned out well though. I was at the orphanage for only a few days until a Spanish family fostered me. Mr. and Mrs. Hernandez were the only foster parents I really had who ever felt like parents."

"These were the ones you told the doctor about who got you your shots?"

I nodded. "Yeah. The Hernandez family. They were an older couple, in their sixties I think, they'd never had any children, just a long string of foster children. Mrs. Hernandez taught me to cook, and helped me with my Spanish, and Mr. Hernandez knew about all sorts of things, astronomy, biology, mythology, ancient cultures, and geography. I'm pretty sure he knew the capital of almost every country in the world. Together they taught me so much I was able to skip fourth grade."

"Wow. It didn't last?"

"No. When I was nine, and in the sixth grade, Mr. Hernandez had a stroke, and they moved from San Francisco to Florida to live with his younger sister. They didn't want to adopt me, because they were so old, and so they sent me back to the orphanage to get another foster family."

"And who was the next family?"

"They were a German Jewish family, and pretty much all they ever did for me was get me learning for my bat mitzvah."

"That's all?"

"They made me work a lot, I guess that the father's father had been rich, and he had had a maid as a kid, but they didn't have the money for a maid."

"So they took you in?"

"So they fostered me. And because they weren't at all nice to me, I focused my energy on doing well in school to keep my mind off my life at 'home'."

"So did you skip another grade?"

"No, but I got really far ahead of my grade. When I was eleven, one of the foster care inspectors came unannounced and found me doing my work unsupervised while the rest of the family watched TV, so she removed me, and took me back to the orphanage."

"So how many families is this so far?"

"The Valdez family, the Salmonds, the Mardels, Mr. and Mrs. Hernandez, and the Steinezerns. That makes five so far. There's one more."

"And who were they?"

"The Arhadens, an Israeli family. The father was a rabbi, and he was very caught up in his work at the synagogue, and the mother was a lawyer, very caught up in her work as well, but they were both very nice people, and they cared for me well. With all of the getting ahead I did with the family before them, I took a lot of high school classes in eighth grade, and I took ninth and tenth grade in the same year. In May of that year, I turned thirteen, and they gave me my bat mitzvah. The next September, when I began eleventh grade, the mother's half-brother, who was out of work, moved in. He- he was scary."

"Scary?" Alice looked a bit confused.

"Yes. Scary… he would be all nice and kind whenever his half-sister and his half-brother in-law were home, but when they weren't he was scary. He would get mad really easily, and he was so violent. He would hit me, and their two little sons. He would threaten us with death or other things if we told what he did. I finished both eleventh and twelfth grade that year, and graduated from high school a couple days before my fourteenth birthday. A week or two after I graduated, he got… adventurous, I guess you could say, and-"

"Did he- you know?"

"No, he's not Abra's father. He just let his hands roam, if you get my meaning."

Alice nodded. "So you ran away?"

I nodded. "I left them a letter telling what had happened, and ran away. I had been accepted to Columbia with a full scholarship, so I went to New York, changed my name, and lied about my age to get a job."

"Wait. Edward said once that you looked a bit familiar when he first saw you."

"He did? Wait, where did you guys grow up?"

"In Forks, Washington."

"On the Olympic Peninsula?"

"That's right."  
"Oh yeah! Here's why. The rabbi had a sister who lived in the Seattle area, and she took us out to La Push to go hiking on the beaches and in the mountains out there. She had a friend who had kids in public school in Forks, so I went to school for a day at the high school there when I was in ninth grade."

"And Edward would have been a senior, I think"

I nod. "I guess that's where he recognized me from. He has good memory."  
Alice grinned. "He does. Anyway, go on. I want to hear what's next."

"Where did I leave off?"

"You ran away to New York."

"Right. So I ran away and went to live in New York. I didn't know anybody, and my scholarship depended on my getting good grades, so I worked hard in my classes, taking extra classes each semester, and taking summer semesters to get further ahead. Just before the summer semesters began, the spring semester would have graduation and lots of extra people would be on campus. Huge numbers of friends and family members of graduates would stay in the dorms, even though they weren't supposed to, and once you had a key to one dorm room, you could get into every single one. So it was just before spring semester graduation, a few days before my sixteenth birthday that-" I stopped.

"What?"

"You know."

"I don't. And you need to tell me. Have you told anyone about this, ever?"

I thought. "No."

Alice shook her head. "Bella, you've got to tell someone."

"Some guys, a lot of them, they were probably drunk, broke into my dorm room. I was tired, I had had a really long day, and I never really got enough food, so before I could do anything they pinned me down, and"

"And?"

"And when my period didn't come on time, and I remembered what had happened I went and bought a pregnancy test from the drugstore."

"And it came out positive?"

"Yes. I graduated from Columbia in August, and I gave birth to Abra the next February."

"By yourself?" Alice rubbed my back, and looked profoundly sad.

"The nurse refused to hold my hand because she didn't want her fingers to be broken. And I probably would have broken her fingers too. I came to Boston in March and found an advertisement for Abra's daycare in April. I started at Harvard that May, when I turned seventeen. I've been here ever since."

"But didn't Edward meet you on a plane coming back from Hawaii?"

"I was there this summer for a summer course there."

"And when are you graduating?"

"May."

"_This _May?"

"This May."

"So you'll be…?"

"Eighteen. I'll turn nineteen a few days after graduation."

"And do you know where you're going for your residency?"

"I might go back to San Francisco, or I might go to Seattle. There's a place in Vermont I'm thinking about going to as well."

"Why did you run off when Edward was dropping you off from the date?"

"He tried to kiss me. I got really scared, and I ran into my room and locked the door. It wasn't really his fault, he didn't know what had happened, but it was really scary for me. Even though I knew he wasn't going to hurt me, I thought he would. I was just- scared, surprised, I don't know. Maybe if he had asked to kiss me it would have been okay." I shook my head. "And also, I'm not really used to depending on anybody, or trusting people, with the way I grew up and everything"

Alice nodded. "The way you reacted makes perfect sense when you get the whole picture. It's just when you don't have the whole picture it doesn't make a lot of sense. Oh, and one last thing, how did you learn to play the piano so well?"

"Practicing, obviously." I grinned. "No, the music teacher at whatever school I went to would usually let me practice before and after school. Some even gave me lessons, but that stopped after sixth or seventh grade."

"Why?"

"Because I was better than them already."

"And you were how old?"

"Nine or ten."

Alice shook her head. "So do you think that you're talented?"

I shrugged. "A little."

"A little?" Alice looked incredulous. "You speak four languages, you're going to graduate from medical school at the age of eighteen with a two-year old daughter, and you play the piano as well as a virtuoso, and you're only 'a little' talented?"  
"Five languages. English, Français, Deutsch, Español, and Hebrew."

"My point proven further."

I shrugged. "Whatever."  
"Are you going to talk to Edward about what happened?"

"No."

"No?"  
"I wrote him a letter explaining."

"Okay." Alice stood up and hugged me. "I hope that helped a little bit. Sleep well."

"You too. And thanks Alice."

She nodded to me, and left. I went to bed.

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**A/N: Chapter rewritten. I didn't like the monologue-ish way it came out before, so I changed it. I hope it's better. :D**


	26. Will I?

**A/N: Listening to the Lincoln Memorial Concert on the radio. Rosario Dawson is speaking!!!!! It's making me happy, so I'm going to write a chapter. Edward's thoughts on what happened. **

**Chapter 26- Will I?**

The scene played over and over in my head. Bella, seemingly leaning in to kiss me, and then running off into her room, and slamming the door. I had figured out what I had done wrong. I knew I had scared her. I knew she had baggage I had no idea about. Alice was talking with her right now, and I would go to the tutoring session tomorrow, and see if I could talk to her there. I wondered what she would say to me, if she would say anything to me, if she would show up.

I loved Bella. Was that not enough?

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Tuesday night. The seventeenth of February. It was a quarter to eight, and I was walking over to the library, hoping with my entire heart to see Bella sitting at that table waiting for me.

I took a deep breath as I opened one of the big glass doors into the library. I walked over to our usual table, and there she was.

She looked as beautiful as ever when I sat down across from her. "Bella?" I asked.

She shook her head, and pushed an envelope across the table to me. It was labeled in her beautiful handwriting '_Edward- Open in your room in private'_

I nodded, and she got up and left. I walked around the library a little bit, and then I went back to my room, to read her letter. I tried to walk slowly, but I couldn't manage it.

I sat down at my desk, and set the letter down. I looked at it. Finally, I brought myself to open it, scared of what I might find inside.

I pulled out six closely written sheets of college-ruled paper. Each side was numbered, one through twelve. I set them in order and picked up the first one.

_Dear Edward,_

_First of all, I'm sorry. And second of all before you read all of this, I ask you not to tell any of it to anyone without express permission from myself. I'm not perfect. I'm bruised and broken. Scarred in ways you could never have guessed. I, Isabella Adina Swan, am not the girl you think I am. I'm not the girl you want. I can never be the girl you want. Let me tell you who I am._

I shook my head. How could she think that she was not the one I wanted? I had to read on.

_I am an eighteen-year-old single mother. I don't know the father of my daughter. I will probably never meet him again. I don't even know what he looks like, I don't know his name. It was not my choice to become pregnant with Abra a few days before I turned sixteen._

_ But I am getting ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning. When I was one week old, my parents abandoned me on the steps of the Jewish Orphanage in the city of San Francisco. _

She went on to describe the ups and downs of her childhood, the good and bad people she met. How she had ended up who she was, a multi-lingual pianist single mother teenager at Harvard Medical School. It was an amazing and tragic story. As it went on, I could hear her voice inside my head, telling me of how she had no one to depend upon, no one to trust, and so few who really loved her.

Unlike, and despite her prediction at the beginning of her letter that I would hate her for who she was, I loved her all the more for it. Her past had made her the beautiful, marvelous person she was, and it showed her resilience and dedication. Compared to her life, mine was the epitome of normality.

I didn't care what people would say about the fact that I, Edward Masen Cullen, was in love with a teenage, Jewish, orphaned single mother. Bella was beautiful, and I was completely in love with her. And, from her letter, I could tell that she was completely in love with me. Now, all I had to do was talk to her.

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I had decided to write a letter back, but I was just having a wee bit of trouble.

_Dear Bella, _I wrote.

_Thank you for sharing your past with me. _No. That wasn't it at all.

_I still love you despite your past. _No. Not it either.

_I wish I could show you how much I admire and love you, both before and after reading your letter. _That was a little better. _I want to tell you that I don't find your past repulsive, or love you any less for it. As I think about what you told me, I have come to realize that I only love you all the more. _

_Please, please, please Bella; accept my most sincere apologies for my actions on Saturday night. I strongly regret what I did. I wish I could take back those last few minutes, and leave the night unmarred in our memories. Unfortunately, I cannot go back in time. My actions are how they were, and I cannot change them, I only hope and wish for your forgiveness. _

_And Bella, I want you to know that no one worth knowing will hate you or dislike you in the slightest for who you are. If I am not allowed your forgiveness, please take my advice when I tell you that you are a beautiful young woman, and it is impossible _not _to love you. _

_Sincerely,_

_Edward Masen Cullen_

I signed it, and folded it up, addressing an envelope to Isabella Swan of room K on floor 3. I took it down to the lobby, and asked the secretary to have it sent up to her.

I walked back up the stairs to the fifth floor, hoping Bella would forgive me, and wondering what I would do with myself if she didn't.

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**A/N: Okay. Another chapter for everybody. I have to tell everyone, proclaim to the world that THE OBAMA 'WE ARE ONE' CONCERT WAS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!! Jamie Foxx's Obama impression was the funniest thing ever! And of course, Rosario Dawson was amazing. :P All the singers and performers (even the ones I don't normally like, or hadn't previously heard of) were amazing, and everyone there was so **_**happy**_**! It was a sight to see (or hear). Sorry to all you people who disagree with me, but I, for one, cannot wait until January 20****th****. **

**A couple of other things, that pertain more to the story, and less to the current political climate: someone asked what 'MIT' was- that's the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, people, probably the best engineering school in the United States. **_**Chapter 25 has been redone; I would recommend rereading it if you read **_**previous to**_** the last 12 hours**_**. Also I think that 'the epitome of normality' is a great phrase. :D **

**Thanks to all of my readers and my reviewers, of whom I will today go to the trouble to list, something I haven't done since way back in Chapter 19! **

**So, here is a total of seven chapter's worth of reviewers! Thanks to babylopez2008 (x4), karathomas08, IKD (x2), Zoe (x3), hhawkes (x5), Sarah (x5), SunnySkies4Life, TaylorxCullen (x4), sailor alpha tomboy (x2), ShikaGirl1990 (x2), brunettes-r-better, cullen_girl_93 (x4), crystal-darkness-331, iwillnverfidu, Kolored (x4), truemidnite, becauseimthefavorite, loveleen (x3), LissaRae787 (x2), Pixie Hollow, Ri40, TwilightSunrise, xxxxParvati-Patilxxxx (x2), ilovemclife (x2), Jasper1006 (x2), cantarbailar, .twilightxxx (x2), iLikeCullen, LeonMcFrenchinton (x3 and thanks**_** so**_** much for all of your advice, it's been invaluable), EdwardsCandyCane (x2), twilightgirl10194, twilipseoon (x2), , SamBee44 (x3), Shelly J88, meeeee, Megz999, Jordan (x2), ReaderOfTheClassics, NeverCriticizeRomeo, LoveisEdward, honeyLuvee, sophia, divadingdong (x2), SweetSouthernGal, SparklingTopazEyes, and bloodredeclipse (x4). That's 90 reviews, and 47 separate reviewers! Thanks so much you guys. **


	27. Without You

**A/N: I'm sorry it's been so long, it's been a really hectic week. Here's a new chapter for you all. The letter and the aftermath, in Bella's point of view. **

**Chapter 27- Without You**

I was sitting on my window seat, hugging my knees, watching the light snowfall, and thinking. Thinking about what Edward would think of my letter, what he would think of me when he read my letter. Would I be able to stop loving him? Would Abra ever ask for him? If he hated me, would I still be able to be friends with Alice? What ever would I do without him?

I was interrupted from my contemplations by a loud rap on the door. I jumped up, and ran across the room to peek out the peephole. A messenger, with a letter. I opened the door; she handed the letter to me, and left.

_To Isabella Swan _said the flowing handwriting on the envelope. _Floor 3- Room K_

I opened it. It was from Edward, telling me to stay away from him, most likely. With the investment of a huge amount of willpower, I began to read.

_Dear Bella, _it said.

_I wish I could show you how much I admire and love you, both before and after reading your letter_. _I want to tell you that I don't find your past repulsive, or love you any less for it._

I read it again. Did he really mean it? I read on. I came to the end of the letter, and began to cry. He meant it! He really meant it! I set the letter down on the table and fell onto my bed. He had said he admired me. He had said he admired me. He admired me! I couldn't really believe it. What was there to admire about me, of all people? I was not a person to be admired, to be envied, to wish to be like. I was the person to wish to be _unlike. _Me? Admired? I couldn't wrap my head around it.

An hour later, I got up, remembering he might possibly be waiting for a reply to his letter. That he might be emotionally invested in this too. I internally reprimanded myself. _That was something you should have thought of forty-five minutes ago, Bella! Where is your brain? _I shook my head, and sat down to write.

_Dear Edward,_

_I admit I am having a hard time believing what you wrote in your letter. It seems all too good to be true. I am, however, overjoyed that it is true. Thank you, danke, merci, grazi, and gracias for accepting me for who I am. _

Now, I had to figure out what I would ask him to do. I wanted to talk to him, but how? Alone be best, but did I want to be alone with him? I knew I should trust him, but the real question was could I.

_A leap of faith_, Maureen's song from Rent. 

I began to write.

_Could you come to down around three thirty this afternoon? I would like to talk to you face to face, if that's all right. _

_Thank you,_

_Bella_

I took it down to the office to be sent up to his room, and went off to my first class.

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I had just finished my last class of the day, and was in the medical library, checking out a book. I looked at my watch. Almost three o'clock. I shook myself, remembering that Edward would be coming over around three thirty, and I had to go clean up.

I rushed back to my dorm room, and tidied up. I re-braided my hair, and sat down at the table to wait, reading the book I had checked out earlier.

At three thirty on the dot, there was a knock on my door, and I got up to let Edward in. I gave him the chair to sit on, and sat down on my bed, facing him.

He looked at me. "Bella." He took a deep breath. "I- I'm so sorry."

I shook my head. "No. It's me who ought to be sorry."

"For what?"

"For running off like that with no explanation."

"That's nothing to be sorry for, it wasn't your fault."

"It- I- But there are so many things I could have done differently."

"What do you mean?"

"I could have tried to stop him, I- I could have-" I turned away, trying to hide the tears.

"You did your best."

I looked back at him. "I-"

"Bella, I'm sure you did your best. Oh Bella." He had seen my tears. He got up and walked over to me, sitting down next to me. I leaned against him, and he put an arm around my shoulders. I buried my face in his shoulder and began to sob. He pulled me into his arms, and I didn't resist.

As I sat curled up in his arms, I realized I felt safe, really completely safe, for the first time in years. Not since Mrs. Hernandez had dropped me off at that orphanage when I was nine had I felt safe like I did now. I could feel Edward's strong arms around me, and I somehow knew that he would never intentionally hurt me. So maybe this was love.

He rocked me back and forth until my sobs subsided, and then he whispered in my ear. "I love you Bella."

I leaned my head against his chest. "I love you too."

Edward stood up, and pulled me onto my feet. He took both my hands in his and looked into my eyes. "Bella?"

"Yes?"

"Will you take me back?"

I smiled up at him. "Yes." I breathed, and he pulled me into another hug.

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Later as I sat at my desk, with Abra slumbering peacefully in her crib next to me, I thought about Edward. How it felt to be in love, how it felt to be held in his arms, what it might be like to become part of his family, to, the thought surprised me, maybe even marry him.

I grinned to myself. Someday, maybe. In the past I had thought about being happy in the future, and here it was, that distant future where I was happy.

And those four magical words. He had said them, and he had meant them. And I had said them back, meaning them just as much.

Life is good. A phrase that I only dreamed could apply to me.

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**A/N: I hope everyone is satisfied. Thanks so much for sticking around!**

**I'm sure people are going to review and tell me that they think Bella just moved way faster emotionally that was really realistic. That might be true, but here's my rationalization. (And remember, this is **_**fiction**_**.) Bella **_**wants**_** to move on with her life, she **_**wants**_** to open up and love people. It's just not an easy thing for her to do. She's really vulnerable, and Edward comes and comforts her, and she realizes that she can open up, and lets herself. If she hadn't been so vulnerable right then, she would have thought more about what she was doing, and would not have taken such a risk. She took that risk, and it worked out well for her. I hope that makes a little tiny bit of sense to all of you…**

**Thanks to all of my readers and my reviewers, meeee, lil-miss-jollyrancher, ReaderoftheClassics, Sarah (x2), Drama4zashley-Naley, ilovemclife, xxxxParvati-Patilxxxx, Shelly J88, EdwardsCandyCane, babylopez2008, Leon McFrenchington, hhawkes, SweetSouthernGal, SparklingTopazEyes, .twilightxx, IKD, and ChasingAfterADream (x2). Keep up the great work, and remember to review!! **


	28. Seasons of Love B

**A/N: Everyone was very worried that this was the end of the story, but no it's not. There is more to go, so don't worry. I'm thinking around 10 more chapters, and a possible sequel. All of your reviews made me very happy, and I'm so sorry it took so long!!!**

**This chapter is going to be… fluff. In Edward's point of view.**

**Chapter 28- Seasons of Love B**

It was March, and it was cold. But slowly, spring was coming to Boston. The beginnings of leaves were appearing on trees, and the snow was sticking less and less. I saw Bella often, and Abra every once in a while, the three of us and sometimes Alice would spend time together on the weekends, and I still saw Bella every Tuesday for my tutoring session, though now we usually just worked on our assignments together, as I needed tutoring less and less. Bella would be graduating in May, and at her urging, I had taken some extra credits, and would be graduating in August, at the end of the summer semester.

Tuesday night. I hadn't seen Bella since Sunday, and I was seriously missing her. I walked into the library, about half an hour early, thinking I would have to wait for her, but she was already there. She looked up at me with a smile.

"Hi Edward."

"Hi Bella. How are you?"

"I'm fine. You just saw me on Sunday, anyway!"

I shook my head. "Two days is a very long time."

She grinned. "Sit down, and do your work, you exaggerator."

I pouted. "Does that mean I have to be quiet?"

"Yes. But why am I being the mature one? You're 24, and I'm only eighteen!"

I shrugged. "But I'm only barely 24, and you're almost 19!"

She rolled her eyes good-naturedly. "Sit down and be quiet."

"Okay. If you say so."

"I do say so." And she smiled beautifully up at me.

I sat down across the table from her, and began to work on my Spanish assignment.

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It was Friday night, and I was missing Bella again. I knew she didn't have any tutoring, so I decided to go and visit.

I walked down the two flights of stairs, and down the hallway to Bella's room. I knocked on her door, and she opened. Abra peeked out from behind Bella's legs, and when she saw that it was myself at the door, she ran forward and I picked her up.

"Hi there Abra!"

"Hi!"

"What about me?" Bella asked.

"Who?"

"Me! Bella Swan!"

"Oh you!" I grinned and waved to her. "Hi!"

She rolled her eyes at me, and motioned me inside. "So what did you come for?" She asked, once I was situated on the window seat, and she at her desk.

"Just to hang out."

"Oh. Okay, you can play with Abra while I finish this essay, and then maybe we can do something."

"Sure!" Abra walked over and sat down across from me, and I took a picture book off of the bookshelf, called _The Slow Train to Oxmox. _I began to read it to her. It was about a guy going to work who gets on the wrong train (the slow train instead of the fast train), and has a lot more trouble getting to work than he could have every anticipated. It was really quite good.

A couple of books later, Bella was done and she turned around. "So what do you want to do?"

"I don't know. You want to go for a walk?"

"Sure."

We donned our coats and shoes, and with each of us holding one of Abra's hands, we set off around Harvard Yard, enjoying the twilight.

"I love this time of day, don't you?"

I nodded. "It is rather beautiful, but not nearly as much as you."

Bella shook her head. "You know I'm plain."

I shook my head back, but didn't answer. I didn't want to argue today.

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It was late in March, a week or two after our walk, and I was sitting in my room, trying to do homework, but really thinking about Bella, when a someone knocked on the door.

I opened, hoping to find Bella, but it was Alice. "Hi Alice."

"Hi Edward. You sound disappointed."

"I was hoping it would be Bella."

She shook her head, grinning. "Sorry. It's your sister, not your girlfriend."

"Awww."

"'Tis a pity."

"Come in, anyway."

She came in and sat down across the table from me. She was bouncing up and down in her seat a little bit, and I could tell she was excited.

"What is it you're so excited about, Alice?"

"Oh, nothing."

I shook my head at her. "Tell."

"Umm… okay. Edward, are you and Bella engaged?"

"No!"

"Are you going to get engaged?"

"I don't know… "

"Have you even thought about it?"

"Well, umm, no, not really."

She kept bouncing. "Well, when are you going to ask her?"

"I don't know! I have to think about. And not right now. Maybe in a few months."

Alice frowned. "Okay."

"Why did you ask anyway?"

"I wanted to know when I could start planning the wedding."

"A little early for that Alice."

"But there's going to be a lot of planning that has to be done!"

"Whatever, Alice. Was there anything else you came for?"

"No."

"Okay. Bye then."

"Bye, Edward. And think about proposing!"

I rolled my eyes. "I will."

She left, and I sat down at my desk, with my head in my hands. That sister of mine. Sometimes I just had to wonder about her.

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A few days later, I actually got around to thinking about what Alice had asked me to do. How_ would_ I propose to Bella? And when? What kind of ring would I get? Would she accept? What would I say? I really had to think about it. And proposing had always seemed so easy. The guy just got down on one knee and asked the girl to marry him. I wish it _was _as easy as all that.

Maybe I would ask Carlisle.

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**A/N: Sorry about the short chapter. I needed some calm in here, a little bit of fluffy stuff to collect my and my characters' thoughts. Again, I'm really sorry about the long wait. I want to thank all of my readers (because of whom this story has almost thirty thousand hits) and my reviewers (who have given me 319 amazing gifts so far). Thanks to IKD, Leon McFrenchington, .twilightxx, babylopez2008, sorcerergirl90, =), Drama4zashley-Naley, Shelly J88, hhawkes, TaylorxCullen, SparklingTopazEyes, ilovemclife, OverlyObbsessedAboutTwilight, Edward's Candy Cane, xxxxParvati-Patilxxxx, SamBee44, loveleen, Sarah, and jhardy.**

**Thanks so much for all of your support, and keep up the great work! There will almost certainly be another chapter out this weekend. **


	29. I'll Cover You

**A/N: Here's my weekend chapter!! I was amazed at the response I got to my last chapter. Over 5,000 hits and tied with two other chapters for the most reviews (at 21). Wow! I hope for a similar amount this time!**

**Edward and Bella are going to go visit Esme and Carlisle over spring break. Both points of view.**

**Chapter 29- I'll Cover You**

**Bella**

It was Tuesday evening, and, like every other Tuesday evening, I was sitting in the library. Edward was due to walk in soon, and I was reading one of my textbooks, taking notes in neat handwriting on a piece of lined paper. I despised it when teachers said notes had to be handwritten.

I looked up at a _thump. _Edward had set his books down on the table.

"Hi Bella."

"Hi Edward."

He pointed to the hand that held my pencil. "You're left handed?"

I nodded. "Yeah. You didn't notice?"

"No. You're always typing."

"True. So what do you want to work on today?"

"I was thinking you could help me with an article I have to read? It's pretty complicated and hard to understand."

"Sure. Medical Journal stuff?"

"Yeah." He made a face.

I grinned. "I completely agree."

An hour later, we had finished wading through the article, and I was pretty sure Edward had understood. I wasn't completely sure _I _had understood what it was trying to say. It was _that _sort of article.

I resumed my note taking, and Edward shuffled papers around for a little bit.

"Bella?"

"Yeah?" Internally, I was worried he was going to ask- well, something I wasn't ready to answer. He did look nervous…

"I was wondering- well, whether-" He stopped.

"Whether what, Edward?"

"Whether you'd like to visit my parents with me over spring break?"

I laughed. "Yeah! Sure. I haven't got anything else to do. And it will be nice to see them again. It _has _been a while."

He grinned. "Okay good. I was thinking I'd go up that Monday and come back down that Friday?"

I nodded. "Sounds fine. Can Abra come?"

"Of course. And you don't mind if I drive, do you?"

I shook my head. "No. Of course not!"

"Good. See you next week!"

"Bye Edward."

And with that, he picked up his books and left. I wondered internally what he had brought all of them for.

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Two weeks later, on Monday morning, I sat in my room, with a suitcase, a car seat, and a restless Abra, waiting for Edward to knock. Abra had woken up early, before sunrise, and had made so much noise that I had had to get her up and entertain her, as I could no longer sleep, and she wouldn't stop.

I had read to her, played with her, talked to her, fed her, tried to put her back to bed, and so much more, but she was still restless. I usually took her out for a walk when she was like this, but I didn't want to risk missing Edward. The definition of polite was not _Saying you'll be at home ready to be picked up and taken on a trip, and going out on a walk with your two-year-old daughter, instead. _At least, last time I checked it wasn't.

I picked Abra up and started bouncing her on my knee as I waited.

Finally, after what seemed to have been an eternity, but was really only about ten or fifteen minutes, Edward knocked. I gathered all of my stuff and pulled it over to the door. I opened it, and he smiled at me.

"Hey Bella. Hi Abra.'

Abra waved up to him. "Hi Eddard."

He grinned, and then turned to me. "You want me to take some of this stuff?"

"Sure. Could you take suitcase, and I'll take Abra and the car seat?"

He reached for the suitcase and the car seat. "I'll take the car seat."

I shook my head. "No, it's fine. Abra can walk down the stairs by herself."

He nodded. "Okay." Then he turned to Abra. "Abra?'

"Yeah?"

"Can you walk down the stairs all by yourself?"

"Yeah!" She grinned up at him. She loved the stairs, for some odd reason.

"Good for you!" He smiled at her, and picked up my suitcase, leading the way down the stairs. I picked up Abra's car seat and followed him. Abra followed me slowly, holding the handrail, though it was high above her head. The stairs certainly were not meant for toddlers.

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**Edward**

It took a few minutes, but we finally got settled in to my Volvo. Bella sat in the back to take care of Abra, although I wished she had sat in the passenger seat, where I could see her. Oh well.

We drove in silence, even Abra was quiet, completely the opposite of her normal wriggly self. I wondered, as I often did, what Bella thought of during these silent times.

I was usually able to read people well, and I could often guess at what people were thinking, and be reasonably close to actuality. But Bella was a totally different story. She was impossible to read, her mind closed away. Did she think about me? About Abra? About her past? About school? I wondered what it was like to be a parent. To have grown up the way she had. I wondered especially what Bella thought of me. My thoughts were interrupted as she spoke.

"Are Esme and Carlisle expecting us?"

"Of course. When I called they asked if I was inviting you. I had already planned on inviting you, so I said yes."

"Okay good. I don't want to show up uninvited."

She was so polite. So guarded, so mysterious, so talented, and so beautiful. Wait- was that the sign for Alton and Gilmanton Ironworks? I woke my brain up, and remembered that I was supposed to be driving, and not lost in my thoughts.

A little while later, we parked in front of my parents' house.

I unpacked the suitcases from the trunk while Bella got Abra out her car seat. We walked into the house together, the kitchen; warm from the woodstove a relief after the cold outside.

Esme came running out of the living room to greet us, giving both Bella and me a hug, and Carlisle, probably having heard the car arriving, came down a few minutes later.

"Hello Edward, Bella, Abra."

Abra waved. "Hi C- Cu- Ce- Car!"

He smiled at her. "Carlisle."

"Car!"

Bella shrugged at him, and he grinned back. "It's fine."

Esme smiled at all of us. "Welcome home." And I'm pretty sure she meant it- to every single one of us.

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**A/N: That was satisfying. I hope all of you guys found it the same way. To all of you who thought it was a bit early to be thinking about proposals and weddings, it is! This is Alice we're talking about, people!**

**Thanks for reading, and special thanks to ilovemclife, truemidnight, jhardy, IKD, sleepthroughthestatic (who reviewed all of my stories!!), Sprig, Synthia Van Dan, ****Hellisntthatbadwhenuhavanangel (x4), WolfGirl15, roughneck1, SparklingTopazEyes, CharlieHyuga75, Shelly J88, babylopez2008, TaylorxCullen, bluebaby3296 (x7), .twilightxx, Leon McFrenchington, vikaaaaaa, bloodredeclipse, ****and SamBee44 for reviewing!!**


	30. Flowers and Snowflakes

**A/N: I've been really busy, and I will continue to be really busy… I'm going to be on a trip from the 15****th**** until the 21****st****, and this will be the last chapter I get out before then… This chapter is visiting Carlisle and Esme. Some conversations… both (Edward and Bella's) perspectives.**

**Chapter 30- Flowers and Snowflakes **

**Bella**

It was eleven in the morning, and I sat cross-legged on the living room floor, showing Abra the pictures in a purely illustrated book I had found on the shelf upstairs. Esme walked in.

"The Gardener?" She asked.

"Yes, it's quite beautiful."

"One of my favorites. We donated a lot of our children's books to the hospitals when the kids got into high school, but I was too attached to that one to donate it. I bought another copy to donate, so I could keep this one." She smiled.

Abra looked up from the picture she was examining. She pointed to the page "Pretty flowers."

I nodded. "They are, aren't they Abra." Then I looked up at Esme again. "I know you didn't come in here just to see what I was showing Abra."

"I didn't." She conceded. "I was wondering whether we could talk?"

I nodded. "Would here be okay?"

"Sure." She motioned to the couch. "Sit down."

I sat next to her and gave Abra the book to look at. "So?"

"This is going to come out oddly, I know, but Bella, you are a- mysterious person."

My brow wrinkled. "Okay?"

"And I think Edward really likes you, so I'd like to know more about you."

"Okay. How about if you ask questions, and I answer them if I'm comfortable?"

"Sounds good. How much are you comfortable with my telling Carlisle?"

"How much does he know?"

"Almost nothing, as far as I know."

"I'd like it if you didn't tell him anything, I'd rather tell him myself."

"That's fine. So I know that you're eighteen, and a little about Abra. How did you get to be eighteen and in graduate school though?"

"I- Well, a lot of things came together. I went to Columbia for my undergraduate degree, and I did a lot more credits per semester than I needed to, so I could graduate more quickly."

"How long did it take you?"

"Two years."

"And then?"

"I took a few months off for Abra, and then I started Harvard that summer."

"And you've been there since?"

"Yes."

"When do you graduate?"

"In May."

"In May?"

"Yes."

"Wow."

I shrugged.

She smiled at me. "Can I play with Abra a little bit?"

"Sure. I'm going to go look around outside." It had snowed a little bit earlier, and I wanted to see what the area looked like in snow.

"Go ahead."

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**Edward**

I looked out my window, and noticed it was snowing. The trees in the old apple orchard looked like a postcard, and if I had gone into town and to the store, I probably would have found one that looked quite similar to it.

I walked over to the window, and saw Bella, tramping through the ever-deepening snow. I left the window to find my coat and boots and join her.

I followed Bella's disappearing footprints through the snow, down the dirt road behind the house. I crossed the street into the neighbors' field, and saw her.

She was spinning in circles arms in the air, as the snow fell on her face. She was absolutely radiant.

I walked up to her and she stopped spinning, looking at me as she blinked snow off of her eyelashes. "Hi."

"Liking the snow?" I grinned at her.

She blushed. "I guess. We never really got much in California. It's still a novelty."

I nodded. "We never really got much out in Forks, either. One could go up to the Olympics nearby where there was a little bit, or east to the Cascades where there was a whole bunch, but Forks was too close to the ocean to ever get too much."

Bella picked up a handful of snow from the ground with her bare hand and let it fall through her fingers. "It's beautiful, isn't it?"

I smiled. "It is. All this could be on a postcard."

She laughed. "I went up to the market in Gilmanton Ironworks. It is."

I rolled my eyes. "Figures."

"I'm getting cold. Are you going to come inside with me?"

"Yes."

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I followed her inside the house, and together we made an awful racket stomping the snow off of our boots before standing in front of the woodstove in the middle of the kitchen to warm ourselves up.

I had been sitting in my dad's rocking chair, and chatting with Bella, who sat in my mom's chair for a few minutes when my dad came through the doorway to the back wing of the house and asked me to come up to his office. Bella looked up and gave me a little smile for good luck as I left.

We walked up the back stairs, and into my dad's office. I sat down in one of the chairs, and he sat at his desk.

"So Edward."

"What?"  
"What do you think?"

"Would it possibly have something to do with the fact that I'm in love with the Jewish single mother of a two year old? And that you don't know her age and her history and I do?" I asked sarcastically.

Carlisle took a deep breath. "Don't be sarcastic Edward. Is this actually serious?"

I nodded. "Yes. I was actually planning on asking you-"

"Ask me later. I want to discuss this now."

"Okay."

"So what do you know about her life?"

"She actually specifically asked me not to tell anybody, including my parents and that she would rather tell you two herself, so I won't answer that."

"Okay." He didn't look at all happy. "So… what can you tell me about her?"

"I'm in love with her, and she's an amazing mother and a great student, and she speaks five languages, and plays the piano better than I do, in addition to being younger than I am."

"How old is she?"

"Something you'll have to ask her, Dad."

He pursed his lips. "Okay. Thanks Edward. I'm going to want to talk to both of you with Esme sometime later."

"Okay, Dad."

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**A/N: Sorry it's so short. I'll see if I can write anything while I'm away, but I won't have my computer, so it'll be hard. I'll just have to generate some ideas.**

**Thanks for all of your support, and here's your thirtieth chapter! Special thanks to Musicismypassion51194, Alice712, xoBEDWARDox, meeee, SamBee44, EdwardsCandyCane, Amber Quible, TaylorxCullen, babylopez2008, SunnySkies4Life, CullenGirl30, sleepthroughthestatic, SparklingTopazEyes, Sinthya Van Dan, PerfectlyFrazzled, OverlyObbsessedAboutTwilight, Anchors, =), .twilightxx, TariElena, Leon McFrenchington, IKD, and courthale for reviewing!**


	31. Here Goes

**A/N: I've been gone… I'm sorry, but I'm sooo busy. I do this thing called school… yeah. Enough said. **

**At any rate… a new chapter. **

**I often forget this, but anything recognisable belongs to its respective owner, and not to me. I do not make get any monetary profit from this story. All I get is happiness from reading your reviews!!**

**Chapter 31- Here Goes**

**Bella**

I was curled up on the living room couch, reading while Abra napped upstairs, when Esme walked in.

"Hi Bella"

"Hello."

"What're you reading there?"

"Tintenherz." I answered.

"Tintenherz?" She looked confused, and it took me a second to figure out why.

"Oh. Sorry. It's called Inkheart. It's a kids novel by Cornelia Funke."

"I've heard of it." I held up the book to show her the cover. "Wait. You're reading it in German?"

I nodded. "That _is_ how it was originally written."

She raised her eyebrows. "I didn't know. But I came in here to tell you that Carlisle and I want to talk to you."

I bit my lip and stuck the red ribbon bookmark attached to the spine in between pages 238 and 239. "Okay." I followed her up the stairs, down the hall, and through what I guessed was their bedroom, into Carlisle's office.

I sat down, and looked around. The room was very neat, and the windows on one wall flooded the room with natural light. Another of the walls was covered with bookshelves, each filled with medical journals and textbooks. The other two walls held framed diplomas and kids' artwork.

Carlisle was sitting at his desk, typing on a large and fancy-looking desktop computer, but he stopped when Esme and I entered.

Esme sat down next to him, and he spoke first. "Bella, it seems to us that things are getting pretty serious between you and Edward, and we'd both like to know a little bit more about you."

Esme gave him a look and he quickly added. "If that's alright with you, of course."

I nodded. "It's fine. Do you want to ask me questions, or should I just talk?"

Carlisle thought for a while, and then answered. "Ask questions."

"You don't have to answer if you aren't comfortable, Bella." Esme added.

"Ask away."

"How old are you?"

"I'm eighteen."

"You're eighteen?" Carlisle looked highly surprised.

"Yes. I'll be nineteen next month, on the 25th."

"So you had Abra when you were how old?"

"I was sixteen."

"And who is Abra's father?"

"I have no idea."

"None whatsoever?"

"None." I looked down. This was beginning to feel less like a get-to-know-you, and more like an interrogation.

Esme began to ask questions. "What do you do for fun, dear?"

Thank goodness for Esme. "I like to play the piano, and read, both to myself, and to Abra."

Carlisle got a curious look on his face. "Does Abra speak a language other than English?"

I nodded. "She speaks Spanish and Hebrew too, but English best because of her daycare."

He nodded. "I thought so. Edward mentioned you spoke, I think it was five languages?"

I bit my lip. "English, Spanish, French, German and Hebrew, but German is probably my worst language. I'm still working on it. My German was better when I was younger- I remember bringing a novel in German to kindergarten when I was four."

Esme grinned. "A novel, in German, to kindergarten, when you were four?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

"And what did the teacher say?"

"She was pretty surprised. I don't remember exactly what she said."

Carlisle changed the subject. "I've heard you, and Edward mentioned that you play the piano. How long have you been playing?"

"I think it's been about twelve years now."

"Did you ever have lessons?"

"Sometimes. When I was younger I would stay after school and have the school music teachers teach me."

"So your parents never paid for lessons." Carlisle stated.

`I blinked, not even having been thinking about that possibility. "My parents?"

Carlisle nodded. "Yes. Your parents."

"Can we meet them sometime?" Esme asked. "I'd love to meet them!"

I grinned. "Meet them? I guess you could try, if you wanted!" I laughed.

Esme looked highly confused. "What's so funny? And what do you mean, try?'

I looked down and muttered quietly, "They abandoned me."

Esme walked over and rubbed my back. "I'm sorry dear. How old where you?'

"About a week or ten days."

"So you don't remember them at all."

"Well, obviously not."

"So what happened?"

"I went to an orphanage for seven months, and then when that one closed, I went to a different one for a month, until I was fostered for the first time. I lived with six foster families long-term, and I ran away to go to college when the last one was going badly."

"And how old where you then?" Carlisle was asking now, in a voice considerably less sharp than before.

"I was fourteen. I changed my name, and lied about my age. I said I was eighteen."

"And people believed you?"

I shrugged. "I guess, or at least they didn't do anything about it." I looked at his skeptical face. "You knew I wasn't twenty-four when you met me." It was a statement, not a question.

He nodded. "You don't look twenty-four. You didn't act twenty-four."

"How old did I look?"

"You looked maybe twenty, but you acted at least thirty."

I blushed deeply.

Esme smiled at me. "We thought you were very mature."

I shrugged. "I do have Abra, and I guess I sort of grew up early, with being a foster child and everything."

Esme nodded. "That's true."

Carlisle looked at me. "We still do think that you are very mature for you are. I'm going to be frank with you, though Esme may not appreciate it." She raised an eyebrow at him, but he continued. "When you came here for the first time last Thanksgiving, I had my doubts about whether you were going to be good enough for Edward. Now, I have my doubts about whether Edward is going to be good enough for _you_."

I blushed even deeper. "Thanks."

He shook his head fervently. "No, thank _you._"

I bit my lip, embarrassedly. "You're welcome."

He pointed to the back stairs and the door. "You can go out either way."

I grinned. "I was wondering where those stairs went."

"Well, they come up here, to my office."

As I turned and walked down the stairs, I heard Esme whisper to Carlisle. "Carlisle, we almost have a grandchild! Think of it!"

I could hear the smile in Carlisle's voice as he replied. "Patience, Esme, patience. You are really beginning to sound like Alice."

I heard Esme laugh. "Well, she had to get her personality from someone, and she certainly didn't get much of it from you."

And then I was downstairs, and I didn't hear any more.

I sat back down on the couch in the living room and opened back up to page 238 in _Tintenherz_.

_"Mo lächelte. Dann blickte er mit gerunzelter Stirn wieder den Hang hinab, dorthin, wo, verborgen von Zistrosen, Ginster und hohem Gras, der Weg lag, der sie hergeführt hatte._

_Auch Staubfinger ließ den Weg nicht aus den Augen. Der Anblick der beiden wachenden Männer beruhigte Meggie, und bald schlief sie ebenso tief wie Farid- als wäre die Erde vor dem verfallenen Haus nicht mit Dornen, sondern mit Daunenfedern bedeckt. Und sie hielt es zunächst nur für einen bösen Traum, also Mo sie wachrüttelte und ihr die Hand auf den Mund presste._

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**A/N: The last bit translates roughly to this: "Mo smiled. Then he looked with wrinkled forehead down the cliff again, there where, hidden by rockrose, gorse and tall grass, lay the way that they had come. **

**Also Dustfinger did not let the way out of sight. Meggie calmed at the sight of both men being awake, and soon slept just as deeply as Farid- as if the earth in front of the dilapidated house had no thorns, but rather was covered with down feathers. And they initially though it was only a bad dream, so they shook Mo awake, and her hand pressed to his mouth." **

**No- I didn't translate that myself, I did it with the work of three online translator dictionaries. I didn't want to ask my mom… though that might have been easier. Anyway, it's Monday night here, and I'll post this as soon as Fanfiction begins working again. I am currently not able to login. **

**Thanks to everyone of you for reading and to usaprincess242, .story, cr8burnette91 (x2), EdwardsCandyCane, ilovemclife, jhardy, rogans-rock0909, bella-cullen1989, piowpiow, CullenGirl30, ..Attic, OverlyObbsessedAboutTwilight, SparklingTopazEyes, Sinthya Van Dan, sleepthroughthestatic, LeonMcFrenchington, IKD, and whiteczar for revieiwing!!**

**Love you all!! Keep up the great work!!**


	32. Quiet as a Mouse

**A/N: A brand new chapter. This chapter is going to include… fluff… most likely… I really don't know yet. To be written in Bella's point of view, and probably some of Edward's point of view as well.**

**Chapter 32- Quiet as a Mouse**

**Bella**

I lay awake, staring up at the ceiling. It hadn't taken me very long to figure out that tossing and turning made the bed creak loudly, so as I was awake, I just had to lie still until I fell back asleep. If I fell back asleep, that is.

I was tired. I wanted to sleep. It was dark out. All conditions were favorable to my sleeping- except my location. I often had trouble sleeping away from home, and the past few nights had been worse than ever. I hated having to lie to Esme when she asked me how I had slept, but I was also pretty sure it was rude to say 'badly' in answer to that question.

Abra slept soundly in her crib across the room. Nothing moved outside the door. Every ten minutes or so, a truck would go by on the highway outside, but Mass Ave was normally quite a bit louder, so it wasn't that that was disturbing my sleep. I had tried everything. All of my tried and true go-to-sleep techniques. Nothing.

I was still awake. I didn't dare look at my watch, fearing how early it might be. How much longer I would have to lie here before I could reasonably get up, I didn't even want to know.

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**Edward**

I looked at Bella closely as she walked into the kitchen for breakfast. She sat down at the table and picked at her food for a little bit, before going into the living room to lie down. She had looked rather pale, I had noticed, for the past few days, and today she only looked paler. I watched her walk around, making her breakfast for a while, while Esme bounced Abra on her knee, and then a few minutes after Carlisle went up to his office, I followed him.

"Dad?"

"Yes, Edward?"

"Do you think Bella looks sick?"  
"As in ill?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, obviously."

He nodded. "She looks sleep-deprived."

"That's what I thought too,"

"So why did you ask?"

I shrugged. "I just wanted conformation, I guess. Thanks, Dad."

"You're welcome."

I left his office through his and Esme's bedroom, so Bella wouldn't be suspicious, and decided to go search for something in the attic. Maybe I would be able to find a little something special. But with our attic, who knew.

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**Bella**

I was feeling worse and worse, so after breakfast, I asked Esme to watch Abra for a bit, and went into the living room to rest for a while on the couch.

An hour later, I had a pounding headache, and I hadn't gotten any rest. Esme had to go do some errands in town, and so I took Abra back, not wanting to be a burden.

For a while, Abra cooperatively sat on the floor and played by herself while I rested, chatting quietly in Spanish, but soon enough, she wanted to be read to.

I found a book on a table nearby, which Esme had found, for me to read to Abra, and began to read aloud.

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**Edward**

I came down the stairs to find Bella, and show her what I had found upstairs in the attic. I had heard her reading to Abra in the living room a few minutes earlier, but now, as I walked down the stairs, I didn't hear anything. I opened the door, dropped what I was holding and rushed over to the couch. Bella was slumped over, like she had fainted or something. She was still breathing, and her pulse was fine, she just seemed to be unconscious.

"Bella? Bella?" I asked. "Abra? What happened to Bella?"

She looked up at me, her eyes wide. "Mommy reading. Mommy fall down go boom!" She acted it out as she explained. "'S Mommy okay?"

I shrugged. "I don't know whether she's okay. Can you watch her while I go get Carlisle?"

She nodded seriously, and sat down cross-legged in front of her mother, watching her carefully, as instructed.

I smiled to myself, despite my worries, and ran off to find Carlisle.

"Dad, Dad!" I called, as I ran up the back stairs.

"What is it Edward?"

"Come here, now."

Carlisle looked rather confused, but followed me. "What is it?"

"It's Bella."

"Bella?

"She collapsed!"

He frowned. "She was a lot more sleep deprived that I thought she was, I guess. Is she conscious?"

I shook my head. "No." We came to the living room. "She's in here."

We went into the living room, where Bella was lying on the floor, and Abra was still sitting, watching her mother carefully.

She looked up at me as we walked in. "I'm watching, Edaward."

"You did a really good job. Can you sit in that chair," I pointed to a large easy chair nearby, where she would be close, but out of the way. "and be quiet as mouse so we can help your mommy?"

She nodded and climbed into the chair. After sitting down, she looked at me again. "How quiet's a mouse?"

"Very quiet."

She nodded, and I turned back to Carlisle. He was checking her pulse, and listening to her breathing.

"What's happened?"

"I believe she fainted."

Then it dawned on me. "She was really sleep-deprived."

Carlisle nodded. "Looks like it. You take her upstairs to her room, I'll watch Abra."

I nodded, and went to pick her up. She was light in my arms, and it was easy to carry her down the hall, and up the stairs. As I cleared the top step, she snuggled her head closer to my chest, and I smiled. She had woken up.

I set her down in her bed, and her eyes opened. "What happened?" She whispered.

"You fainted."

"I fainted?"

I nodded. "Have you been sleeping at all?"

She looked away from me and whispered, "Not really."

"That's why."

"Oh."

"Do you think you are going to be able to sleep know, or should we take you back home?"

"I think I'll be able to sleep." I moved toward the door, but she protested. "Could you stay?"

I nodded. "Of course I'll stay."

She smiled at me, and fell asleep, as I sat in the chair by the window, watching her. She was truly beautiful, and I was ecstatic to have finally found the woman for me.

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**A/N: I liked this chapter, and I hope all of you readers did too… **

**Thanks for reading, and to TaylorxCullen, ..Attic, OverlyObbsessedAboutTwilight, sleepthroughthestatic, SunnySkies4Life, CullenGirl30, SparkingTopazEyes, YouKnowDebussy, Amber Quible, IKD, Soccer11, bella-cullen1989, babylopez2008, LeonMcFrenchington, EdwardsCandyCane, Sinthya Van Dan, piowpoiw, and bloodredeclipse for reviewing. **

**Love you all, and keep up the great work!! **


	33. Leaps and Bounds

**A/N: I've been having computer troubles, and all of my files were erased on my former laptop, so that's why this chapter took so long to come out. Thanks for your patience and all of your lovely reviews!!**

**Chapter 33- Leaps and Bounds**

**Bella**

I woke up. The sky was very dark in the windows. Edward still sat in the chair across the room, watching me.

"Good evening." He said, as he noticed I was awake.

"What time is it?"

"About eight."

"Eight?"

"You slept for ten hours. Are you feeling better?"

"Much."

"You're looking better. Abra's been asking for you."

"Can she come up?"

"I'll go get her." And with that he left, descending the stairs so quietly I could hardly discern the third step creaking.

A few minutes later, Abra ran into the room, followed by Edward, and jumped on the bed, while he watched in amusement. "Mommy!"

"Hello dear."

"You better?'

"Yes, thank you."

"You welcome."

I grinned at her, and she grinned back at me. She then jumped off the bed, and dashed over to her crib, picking up a picture book that lay beside it. She ran back and hopped back up onto the bed. She held the book out. "Read to me?"

Edward interjected. "I think your mom is tired, Abra."

Her face fell.

"No, I'll read to you for a little bit, Abra."

Her face lit up and she handed me the book, and reached over to turn on the lamp. Edward smiled at the two of us sitting there together, and went back downstairs.

Ten minutes later, when I was done reading, and Abra was almost asleep on my shoulder, I put her to bed in her crib, and went downstairs to have something to eat, as I hadn't eaten more than a few bites at breakfast.

Esme and Carlisle were in the kitchen, talking, and I could hear Edward practicing the piano in the other room. The melody was hauntingly beautiful, and I stopped in the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room to listen.

As I walked into the kitchen, Esme and Carlisle ceased talking and looked up at me.

Carlisle spoke first. "Did you get some sleep?'

I grinned. "Yes. Supposedly about ten hours of it."

He nodded. "Good. I presume you are feeling better after having slept."

I nodded.

"And why weren't you sleeping before?"

I shrugged. "I guess I sometimes have trouble sleeping in unfamiliar places. It wasn't so bad over Thanksgiving, but it gets worse sometimes, and this was just one of those times. It's not really something I can help."

He nods. "Do you know why you slept so well just now?"

I blushed. "Edward was there? I'm not really sure."

Esme smiled at me, and I blushed even deeper.

Carlisle shook his head. "No, that's a perfectly plausible explanation."

Esme nodded. "Would you like something to eat?"

"Yes, please." I answered.

"We have soup, bread, some leftover tuna, all sorts of things. What would you like?"

"What sorts of soup do you have?"

"Tomato, chicken noodle, cream of mushroom, and beef vegetable, I think"

"Could I have some tomato soup, and some bread to dip in it?"

Esme nodded. "Of course you can."

I got myself a glass of water and sat down at the table as she warmed the soup for me. The soup heated me up, and I finished it quickly.

"Thanks, Esme."

"You're very welcome."

Just then, Edward walked in from the back room. He kissed me on the forehead, and sat down next to me. "How're you feeling?"

"Much better, now that I've slept and eaten."

He smiled at me. "Good. Did my mother feed you well?"

I nodded. "Yes, very."

"She tends too."

I grinned, and leaned my head against his shoulder. He looked down at me. "Are you tired again?"

I nodded, sleepily. "Yes."

He grinned. "You crazy girl. Let's get you back to bed." He notified Esme and Carlisle that we were going upstairs, and then he picked me up in his arms, and carried me up the stairs to my room, setting me down on my bed with a _thump_. "Now sleep."

I shook my head. "I need to brush my teeth. And you'll stay for a bit, right?"

He nodded, and I breathed a sigh of relief. "Of course, I'll stay. I don't want you to faint again." He smiled at me. "I'll go away and let you get ready for bed."

Edward knocked on the door a few minutes later, as I lay in bed.

"Come in."

He smiled at me, and turned out the light, kissing my cheek goodnight, and then crossing the room to sit down in the chair and watch me until I fell asleep. I rolled over toward him and curled up in a little ball on my side, and was asleep a few minutes later.

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**Edward**

She had been asleep for twenty minutes by the time I actually went downstairs. Bella was so beautiful and peaceful when she slept, and I was worried she would wake up if I left. I finally managed to get over my worries, and I snuck down the back staircase as quietly as I could. The front staircase creaked too much.

I walked into the kitchen, where Carlisle sat by himself, reading the newspaper. Esme was in the living room, most likely knitting. She knit beautiful hats for the kids who had lost their hair in chemotherapy.

"Dad?"

"Yes."

"Could I talk to you?"

"Of course. Should I get Esme?"

I shook my head. "No, Just you please. And alone."

He nodded. "Let's go upstairs to my office, then."

I followed him up to my office, and sat down across from him.

"Dad- oh. I don't know how to say this."

He raised an eyebrow. "Well, try anyway."

"I- Well, I want to ask Bella to marry me."

"You want to ask Bella to marry you."

"Yes. That's what I said. And that is also what I meant."

He nodded. "And?"

"I'd like your permission, I guess?"

"Because she doesn't have a father around for you to ask, you're asking me."

I nodded. "Yes."

"Well, you have my permission to marry Isabella Swan."

I grinned and gave him a hug. "Thanks Dad."

He grinned at me. "I had to ask Esme's father for permission too. I remember what it was like."

I laughed. "You know Dad, that's really hard for me to imagine."

He laughed as well. "Is it? Well, no matter, it is true, though I may seem old and dreary, I was your age once as well."

I nodded. "I did know _that._"

He smiled. "Good. So when are you planning on asking her?"

I shrugged. "After graduation sometime. I'm not exactly sure. I'll figure it all out quickly enough."

He grinned. "May I let you in on a little secret?"

"Sure."

"You just have to promise not to tell anybody I told you this, and not to give the impression that you know."

I nodded. "I promise."

"Jasper has already asked."

"You or Alice?"

"Me, obviously. Alice could never keep anything like that to herself for more than ten seconds!"

I grinned. "You're right. Anyway, thanks again, Dad."

"Of course, Edward."

And with that I descended the stairs back to the back wing, and then through the hall to the kitchen.

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**A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed that… Thanks so much for reading, and to kalalu2008 (x2), Billy Bob Bo Jangles, xxxxParvati-Patilxxxx, candygrl95, TaylorxCullen, bella-cullen1989, babylopex2008, Kayceee (x2), iRuo, sleepthroughthestatic *pulls out MP3 player and checks something- Oh! (feels über smart)*, Soccer11, bloodredeclipse, jolly-for-heart07, CullenGirl30, sailor alpha tomboy, OverlyObbsessedAboutTwilight, i-love-boys-who-sparkle-Edward, SunnySkies4Life, ..Attic, piowpiow, SparklingTopazEyes, Sinthya Van Dan, Leon McFrenchington, and cr8burnette91 for their lovely reviews!**

**Keep up the great work!! **


	34. Home Sweet Home

**A/N: Another chapter for all of you lovely people! Bella's point of view. Also, there is a new poll on my profile page about what story all of you readers would like to see after this one!! Please go check it out and leave me some feedback!!**

**Chapter 34- Home Sweet Home**

The week was over, and it was time to return to Boston. Sunday morning was spent packing up all of our things, scattered around the house over our stay. As she had last time, Esme loaded us down with food, which was very much appreciated on Abra's and my part.

Abra gave Esme and Carlisle a hug, and climbed into the car, and sat down in her car seat. I hugged them both as well and got into the passenger seat of Edward's Volvo. Edward dashed out of the house with his suitcase in tow, put it in the trunk, and gave his parents each a hug before getting in the car.

Esme waved as we pulled out, making sure one last time that she had given us enough food for the way back (and the next month and a half). We all waved, and Edward and I assured her repeatedly that we had quite enough food. Abra just sat in the back seat waving and grinning.

The drive back went quickly, the traffic was light all the way until we got to Cambridge almost, and we chatted about classes, teachers, and other miscellaneous topics.

We drove into the garage where Edward stored his car, near our dorm, and parked. He took out our suitcases, and I unbuckled Abra and followed Edward, carrying her and her car seat up the stairs to my door, where Edward set down our suitcase and I gave him a hug. "See you Tuesday!"

He grinned. "See you!"

Abra waved sleepily at him as he lugged his suitcase down the hall and into the stairwell.

I pulled my key out of my backpack pocket, and inserted it into the lock, and turned. My hand fell away from the lock, and I looked at it. I held the head of the key in my hand, and the rest of the key was still in the lock. My key had broken!

I groaned as I realized that I would have to drag all of my stuff, and walk Abra, back down the stairs to the lobby, to go to the office to get a new key. People's belongings, when left in hallways, often disappeared in this dorm.

So I lugged all of my stuff back down the stairs and into the office. And waited, for ten minutes, while the incredibly, unbelievably slow substitute secretary, got up out of her chair, turned around, and got an extra key off the rack of keys in the little cabinet behind her, and handed it to me, reprimanding me for losing my key the whole time. I didn't bother to remind her of the fact that my key had broken.

After toting everything back up the stairs, including a mostly asleep Abra, I jiggled the broken bit of the key out of the lock, and opened the door. Abra walked in and I put her in her crib, where she fell asleep immediately. I did about five minutes worth of unpacking, and then collapsed on my bed. Before I fell asleep, I check the time on the alarm clock next to my bed. Could I really be so tired at only one in the afternoon?

I woke up a few hours later, and put the finishing touches on a couple of assignments that would be due in the next few days. It was my last semester, my time at Harvard coming to an end, and I would be graduating soon, so the number of essays and other assignments we had to complete would be huge for the next two months, but then it would wind down.

I would graduate from the Harvard School of Public Health on June 4th, with a Masters of Public Health degree. For my residency training, I have been assigned to the Department of Epidemiology at the New York General Hospital, in New York City. Edward will get his assignment in July sometime, so we have no idea how far away we will be from each other for the next year. I wonder what I will do with Abra.

As I type, my computer makes a faint dinging noise, signaling that I have an email. I pull the Internet screen up, and check my email. It's from Edward.

_From: _

_To: _

_Re: Hi!_

_Hi!_

_I'm bored._

_Edward_

I roll my eyes, and reply.

_From: _

_To: _

_Re: Hi!_

_Do your homework._

_Bella_

I type another few sentences onto the end of my essay, and my computer dings again.

_From: _

_To: _

_Re: Hi!_

_But I don't want to!! And I'm still bored. _

_Will you entertain me?_

_Edward_

I can't help but smile at his little-kid whining.

_From: _

_To: _

_Re: Hi!_

_I have homework to do myself._

_Bye._

_Bella_

_To: _

_Re: Hi!_

_Okay, okay, I'll do my homework, if just to make you happy._

_Edward_

_From: _

_To: _

_Re: Hi!_

_Thanks! See you on Tuesday, with your homework _done!

_Bella_

And with that, I quit out of my e-mail, so he couldn't bother me any longer.

My essay is finished late that evening, and I prepare myself a sandwich with some bread and cream cheese. I sit on the window seat and eat it, remembering the night I sat here so many months ago, when life seemed so very hopeless. Now I was filled with hope for the months and years to come, for my residency, and for afterwards, and for the family I might be able to find in the Cullens.

I finish my sandwich, and brush my teeth, and fall asleep, dreaming of the years to come, filled with visions of Abra growing up, Edward, Esme and Carlisle as amazing grandparents.

The next morning dawns bright and early, and I am up with the sun, pulling Abra out of her crib, dressing her, and taking her to Angela's, where we can both have our breakfasts.

Angela greets me at the door, with a sunny smile that matches the blue sky above our heads.

"Good morning, Bella, hi Abra, how was your trip?"

I smile. "It was lovely."

"And how is Edward?"

"He is fine."

She grins. "Come in you two, it's cold outside, but it sure is a beautiful day! If it stays this nice, we might walk over to the park in the afternoon."

"Sounds lovely." And as we walk up the stairs, "It smells great it here to! What's baking?"

"Apple muffins. Should be done-" The timer goes off and she rushes into the kitchen. "Now!"

I grin, and follow her into the kitchen.

"Abra and you can be my taste-testers." She says with a smile.  
I set Abra down in the high chair, and Angela sets a muffin in front of her. "Be careful, it's hot!"

I pull a muffin out of the tin, and switch it from hand to hand rapidly, to keep from burning my fingers. As it cools down, I take a bite. "Angela, these are great!"

She smiles. "Thanks. Take another one, and head off to class, okay?"

I nod, and steal a muffin off of the plate she is setting them on, upsetting her symmetry, and give Abra a goodbye kiss before setting off back to Harvard.

The hot apple muffins keep me warm on my walk through the crisp air, back to the Davis Square T station.

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**A/N: Hope everyone liked! Apple muffins are yummy; you get a virtual one if you review!! Thanks to all of my readers, and to skittleysweet, Soccer11, bella-cullen1989, margpena, liv3609, babylopez2008, sleepthroughthestatic, piowpiow, kalalalu2008, TaylorxCullen, GrlWithoutAName, CullenGirl30, Sinthya Van Dan, Sparkling Topaz Eyes, bethechocolate, xxxxParvati-Patilxxxx, StrawberriesandBurnettes, Kayceee, EdwardsCandyCane, tbcokegirl, ermagee, ang87, and Leon McFrenchington for reviewing!! Keep up the great work everybody!!**

**I'm really really busy right now, so please be patient in regards to the next chapter! I promise I am not abandoning this story.**

**And please remember to answer the poll on my profile page!!**


	35. L'anniversaire de Bella

**A/N: New chapter! This story is almost 100 pages single-spaced in Word!**

**Chapter 35- L'anniversaire de Bella **

Today was May 25th, my nineteenth birthday, or so it was supposed. I would graduate from Harvard in exactly nine days.

I woke up with the sun and stretched. I dressed and walked over to the window seat, where I had a beautiful view of the sunrise. I didn't want anything special for my birthday, after all, if anyone had told me at this time last year that I would have a family who had accepted me as one of their own, and had accepted Abra as well, I would told them to go see a psychologist.

A few minutes later, Abra woke up, and pulled me out of my reverie. I picked her up out of her crib, and sat her down next to me on the window seat, and we observed the sunrise together.

Abra leaned her head against my chest, and I held her close. I could hardly imagine, now that I had, having gone through these past two years without her. In some ways, yes, it would have been easier, but in other ways, I have no idea how I would have made it, even _if _I would have made it.

But that was over now. And I _had _made it through. And now, Abra was making it very clear to me that she was ready to go to daycare, and she wanted some breakfast.

I grinned at her, and got her dressed. I picked up her bag and my keys, and taking her hand we left, locking the door behind us.

Abra skipped next to me as we made our through the already warm May sunlight. It was almost sixty degrees this early in the morning already. It was destined to be a hot day, and most likely, a hot summer. This was Boston, at its worst, or at its best, depending on whom you asked. The grass was still spring green and soft, not the dry brownish green it would eventually become later in the summer. The plants and trees in the Yard's gardens were still flowering as we walked toward the T station.

It was the in-between time of year where it was exactly the same temperature on the underground platform of the station as it was above the ground. In the winter, the T station underground was a nice relief from the cold, and in the summer, a nice relief from the heat. For a couple days in late spring, and a couple in early fall, the temperatures were the same both above and below the ground. I loved this time of year, and not just because it included my birthday.

The train to Davis came in a rush of warm air, and Abra and I entered. The car was empty save for a few early commuters, two men in suits with briefcases, and one older woman in a long dress. The ride went quickly, and soon enough we were outside again, walking away from Davis Square, up Holland Street, toward Teele Square, Broadway, and Angela's house on Hill Street.

The weather made the walk seem even quicker than usual, and in no time at all we had arrived on Angela's doorstep. I reminded her that I would be picking Abra up at noon, seeing as it was my birthday. She told me she would have her and Ben's present waiting, and when I frowned she scolded me.

"You deserve your presents, Bella, for working so hard."

I shrugged. "I still don't like them."

She shook her head at me and grinned. "I don't care if you like getting presents or not. You are going to get one from us. Be glad it's only one."

I smiled. "I'm glad."

She handed me a blueberry muffin, toasted, and covered in a thin layer of cream cheese, and I ate it slowly as I walked back to Davis Square Station.

There were no classes, seeing as it was the last Monday in May, and therefore Memorial Day, so I walked back to my dorm, savoring the sunlight, to clean up and cook.

In a flash it was eleven thirty, and my dorm was spotless. On the table was a sponge cake lightly frosted and covered in fruit (Alice had brought in groceries earlier). There was a stack of plates and forks, which had been supplied by the kitchen downstairs.

I locked the door and left to get Abra, before everybody arrived, around half past twelve.

I was sitting down, reading to Abra when Alice walked in, at about quarter past twelve. I stopped reading, and looked up.

She grinned at me. "Stand up, Bella." I stood up.

"Turn around." She commanded. I turned around.

As I faced her again, she nodded. "Good choice. I approve." I had chosen to wear a short-sleeved shirt and a knee-length skirt she had picked out for me on a shopping trip.

I raised an eyebrow. "Don't you even say hi?"

She looked surprised. "Oh! Hi!"

Abra jumped off of the bed and came to stand next to me. "Hi Alice."

Alice grinned. "Hi Abra." She walked over to the table. "This cake looks yummy. Do I have to wait until everyone else gets here to eat it?"

I grinned. "Thanks, and yes, you do have to wait. They shouldn't be very long, and Abra would love you to play with her."

Abra ran over to Alice. "Joues?"

Alice looked at me, and I grinned. "Play, en Français."

Alice looked confused. "I didn't know she knew French?"

I nodded. "She's starting to pick up a little bit."

"Okay. Oui, Abra."

Abra grinned, and led her over to the toy basket.

A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door, and I opened it to Edward and Jasper. I greeted them both with hugs, directed them to the unfortunately ever-growing pile of presents, and began to serve the cake. Alice and I handed out plates and forks to everyone, and Edward complimented me multiple times on how good it was.

We chatted for a while about school and graduation, as Alice was graduating soon as well, and a while later, after much urging, I was persuaded to open my presents.

Alice gave me a brand new shirt, that fit me perfectly, and she somehow knew I would like, and a long novel that looked like it ought to be quite interesting, if I was ever able to find the time to read it. Edward gave me an encyclopedia of contagious diseases, a very expensive, and highly interesting book that I had been eyeing in the Medical School/School of Public Health Bookstore for quite a while. He also gave me a long and complicated piece by Bach, which I was looking forward to playing. Jasper gave me a CD of Hebrew lullabies for Abra, and a small leather-bound journal. Ben and Angela's present was a painting by Abra that they had framed in tagboard, and a subscription to a magazine for toddlers, full of simple rhyming verse, and fun short stories. They had included the first issue, and Abra took to it immediately.

Around three in the afternoon, Abra, who had not yet had her nap, began to sag. Jasper, and Alice left, and Edward helped me put Abra to bed, kissing me lightly on the cheek before going upstairs to his dorm.

I put the new CD of Hebrew lullabies in the CD player, sat on the window seat, and began my new novel. It had been a lovely birthday.

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**A/N: I almost feel like I deserve to be flamed… What sort of awful author am I, who didn't finish a single chapter over her Spring Break? I am so so sorry to all of you readers, and thank you all for waiting so patiently. Thanks for sticking around and reading this chapter, and thanks to iheartcsinewyork, bella-cullen1989, Twilightx28, Leon McFrenchington, MsssT, CullenGirl30, piowpiow, SparklingTopazEyes, Sinthya Van Dan, ari0568, ange87, babylopez2008, liv3609 (x2), Tim England, For Ever And Ever a Twilighter, bubble bubble toil and trouble, Amber Quible, twilightersunite, Kynicole, PeOtIcalLyPtheTic (x2), xXxEternallyDazzledxXx, Madziorsk, .life, and Soccer11 for reviewing!!**

**Happy Passover/Easter/Spring to everyone, and I hope to have another update out before three more weeks go by!**

**:Ducks and covers in preparation for angry readers:**


	36. Preparations

**A/N: Okay- I'm really sorry about the long wait- I started this chapter a really long time ago, but I got really busy. I had a concert (I said hi to Abra's namesake), and then a few large projects, and then before I knew it- my laptop went away for the summer! I'm going to attempt to keep on writing over the summer, and I will do my best to keep on posting, so we'll see how that goes, but now that I don't have 24/7 computer access, it's going to be a lot harder. **

**Chapter 36- Preparations **

The last few days before June fourth were incredibly hectic. More and more people arrived on campus, and I could not help but remember these days three years previously, and my graduation from Columbia. Fortunately, though, the dorm keys were all different, and I knew exactly where both copies of mine were.

I was sitting in my room one evening, reading to Abra before putting her to bed, when I heard a knock on the door. I jumped up, startled, and peeked through the peephole. Outside my room stood a man I faintly recognized, though it was hard to tell with the peephole's distorted view.

"Who's there?" I asked.

"It's Carlisle Cullen." Said the voice on the other side of the door. Carlisle's voice. I breathed a sigh of relief and opened the door.

"Hi Carlisle. I wasn't expecting you."

"We were hoping to surprise you." He said with a grin.

"We?"

"Esme and I. Alice brought us here, but she and Esme decided to go in the elevator."

"The elevator? It-"

He cut me off. "I know. But they refused to listen. I think they wanted to see what it would be like to get stuck."  
I raised my eyebrows. "Really?"

He shrugged. "I guess."

Just then, Alice and Esme burst out of the stairway door, holding a huge box.

Carlisle and I asked in unison. "What's that?"

Alice and Esme laughed. "Bella's present, of course." Alice answered.

I sighed. "Great."

Alice grinned. "It is isn't it!"

I frowned. "Oh well. Come in."  
The box only barely fit through the door, and took up most of the table when they set it down there. Alice went upstairs to fetch Edward, and I picked Abra up out of her crib and set her on my lap. She fell asleep just as Alice, this time with Edward, walked through the door.

Edward grinned at me, and set a small box on top of the huge box on the table. I frowned. "Really Edward?" I asked in a resigned tone.

He nodded. "Really."

I looked around the room and noticed that Alice was bouncing up and down in a very curious fashion.

I looked at Edward and he rolled his eyes. "She wants you to open the presents." He whispered.

I nodded and handed him Abra. She smiled up at him and I got some scissors out of a drawer. I cut through the tape slowly, careful not to damage the box- who knew what I could use it for when I unpacked what was in it.

I opened the top of the box, pushed aside the packing peanuts and looked inside. I looked at Alice, my eyes huge, and she grinned at me.

I lifted out a long rectangular box and read the label. "Electric Piano Keyboard- Handle with care" I thought- only for a second- about not accepting it, but a piano, even just a keyboard of my own was something I had wished for my entire life.

I thanked Alice profusely, then picked up the small box Edward had set on the table and opened it. Inside was a beautiful carved wooden box, small enough to fit in my hand. I opened it, and inside was a little cow figurine, carved out of wood. I held it up, grinning and asked, "What's this for?"

Edward grinned back. "Just something I thought you or Abra might appreciate."

I looked at it more closely and nodded. "I appreciate."

He laughed.

I looked at all the Cullens, gathered around the table there in my room, and wondered how long paradise would last.

Edward noticed my pensive expression, handed Abra to Alice, and wrapped his arms around me from behind. "What is it?" He whispered into my ear.

I leaned into his chest and looked at all of them. "It's just- I want to thank you guys for being such a family to me."

Edward pulled me tighter into his arms, and kissed my hair, while Alice grinned and shook her head. "We wouldn't have had it any other way." And from the expressions on Carlisle and Esme's faces, I knew she was speaking for her whole family as she said that.

Esme smiled. "We're really excited to see you graduate tomorrow, too."

I grinned. "Thanks."

"And we were wondering if you'd like us to watch Abra during the ceremony, or do you have something arranged?" Carlisle asked.

"She was going to go to daycare, but I would love it if you would watch her. It would be so nice for her to be there, even if she has no idea what's going on."

Alice grinned, and bounced up and down as if she were Abra's age. "We'd love to watch her. It would be our pleasure!"  
"Thanks."

"No problem!" Alice declared.

I looked at my watch. "It's getting past Abra's bedtime, and close to my bedtime, so I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow?"

All three nodded. "And I'll be here bright and early tomorrow morning to get you done up for graduation day!" Alice said, as she placed a now sleeping Abra lightly into her crib.

Esme rolled her eyes and grinned at me, and I shrugged my shoulders in resignation. "See you then." With that, Carlisle, Esme, and Alice left.

As the door closed, Edward pulled me gently to face him.

"Bella."

I looked up at his serious face.

"This sounds slightly parental," He grinned, then his face turned serious again. "But I'm really proud of you. You've inspired me with your hard work, and your unwillingness to give up your goals despite terrible setbacks. You are truly an amazing woman, and I'm really glad I know you. Thank you for being the person who you are."

We stood together in silence for a moment.

"I'm speechless- I really don't know how to respond-" I said, smiling up at him- confused, but utterly touched.

"Then don't" And he leaned down and kissed me slowly.

"Goodnight Bella, see you tomorrow."

"Goodnight."

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**A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing- I really just want to get this chapter posted, so I won't thank personally. Sorry. And sorry also about the shortness of the chapter, but in addition to my strapped-for-time-ness, it seemed done!**

**Tell me in a review-**

**What is the best present you have ever gotten?**


	37. The Circular Motion of the Eyes

**A/N: So I've never **_**really **_**graduated from anyplace so please excuse any errors in my made up version of what graduation might be like! **

**Chapter 37- The Circular Motion of the Eyes**

Now- fast-forward and stop just before I'm about to walk up and receive my degree. Have you ever had one of those nights where you fall asleep, and then you wake up what seems like 10 minutes later, and it's morning? Well, that was last night, for me at least. I didn't ask Abra. Speaking of Abra, she was sitting on Angela's lap, in between Esme and Ben. Sitting nearby were Carlisle, Alice, Jasper, and of course Edward.

Someone- onstage, with a microphone- called my name, and I was snapped out of my reverie. "Swan, Isabella" said the unknown person, "Graduating from the School of Public Health with a Master of Public Health" Somehow, I managed to climb the steps, cross the stage, shake hands with the dean of Public Health and the president of Harvard, receive my degree, and descend on the other side, all without fully comprehending what I was doing. As the last few people graduated, 'Williams, Emma' and 'York, Alexander', I began slowly to realize that I was done. I had actually finished. It was hard to believe that I had made it through so much on my own- and it that respect I hoped I was completely finished. After depending upon the Cullens for only such a short time, and I had no idea how I would be able to complete my residency without their help. Fortunately, I had their help, and when my residency (wherever it may be) began in August, I would be able to count on their support.

And now, as the graduation concluded here they all were. Edward came up to give me a hug, kiss, and a bouquet of flowers first, followed by a hug from Esme, and then hugs and congratulations from everyone else- Carlisle, Alice, Angela and Ben, Jasper, even Leah was here. Fortunately, there were none of those annoying 'Congradulations!' balloons, that one always sees in stores around this time of year. I took Abra let go of Angela's hand and took mine, and together we walked outside the theatre. After the ceremony, lunch was served under outdoor tents, in the beautiful sunny weather.

As we sat down I sighed, and Alice grinned at me.

I grinned back, and shook my head. "I just can't quite believe that I'm done with college."

She nodded. "I would say that I know how you feel, but I don't so…" She trailed off.

"I'm not done with _learning_, it's just that I'm pretty much done with _school_."

Alice nodded again. "Well, you can't do your residency at super-warp speed, so it'll be a few years before your actually completely finished." On my other side, Edward chuckled, and across the table Abra laughed too, though she was just laughing because he was.

I rolled my eyes at both of them, and in a telepathic moment, both of them rolled their eyes back. I leaned forward to peer down the table at Angela.

"Angela!"

"Yes?"

"Has Abra rolled her eyes before?"

"Not that I know of. She's rather a bit young for sarcasm!" She laughed.

I smiled. "That she is." I shook my head at Alice, who rolled her eyes at me. I slapped my forehead in response. "This eye-rolling thing must be the affect of all you Cullens spending far too much time around my poor daughter." I declared.

Jasper put on his best 'innocent' face. "It wasn't me! I'm a Whitlock!"

I looked at Alice. She rolled her eyes. I started in on my salad, in mock frustration.

Alice giggled, and began to eat.

The food was good, and plentiful, and we took our time, eating and chatting and laughing. It was one of the best, most relaxed times I'd had in a while, what with the anxiety of finals and graduation, and the end of graduate school. By the end of the meal, we had decided that the next day we would spend around Boston, doing a little bit of city exploring with Carlisle and Esme, who didn't come down very often. The next few days after that would be spent packing up my things to move up to the Cullens' house in New Hampshire, where I would stay the summer, and where Abra could be spending much of her time, as I completed my residency. As always (and I didn't know whether or not I hoped it would change) I had a hard time believing that this family was willing to do so much for me.

The day had been a long one; though it was only early afternoon and I lay my head on Edward's shoulder. "Would it be a good thing or a bad thing if I ever took you guys for granted? Because right now it's hard to believe that so much is being done for plain old me." I looked up at him, and he smiled.

"Not taking us for granted is one of the things that make you you, but when you start taking us for granted, we'll know you've been sufficiently accepted as part of the family, and that we're doing enough for you. So I don't know. But I do know that you are neither plain, nor old."

I smiled at these words, and surveyed contentedly the campus, and the people that I had come to know so well over the past months and years. The campus I would miss, but I could always come and visit. And the people? The people, I hoped, would stay with me, wherever I went.

**A/N: Thanks to all of the review I've gotten, especially those in the past few weeks. You guys reminded and encouraged me to work on this again. A special thank you is for **_**dreamweaver26 **_**who sent me a message (either by luck or by very very good thinking) the night before Veteran's Day, when I had time to write. **

**Please do review- I will appreciate it more than you know.**


	38. One Evening

**A/N: So. Real life is eating me up, and I hope I can get at least this one out now. Thanks for your reviews. They are very appreciated, and keep me at least attempting to write. **

**Chapter 38 – One Evening**

EPOV

Bella and I had been packing up her room for most of the day. It was strange how a room that had at first glance looked so bare could take so long to pack up. I didn't even want to think about how long my dorm would take. The windows were wide open, and the warm summer evening breeze blew through them. We were almost done, and it was getting a little late. Esme and Carlisle had taken Abra to the zoo, and were going to babysit her for the night, so I was free to take Bella to dinner.

Alice arrived almost exactly as we finished, causing Bella to teasingly complain to her about leaving us to do all the work. Bella began complaining for real when Alice shooed me out of the room and began preparing Bella for dinner. I had made sure to ask Bella a little more than a week ago whether she liked Ethiopian food, and when she had replied to the affirmative (though she had had it only once), I had made reservations at one of my favorite restaurants for tonight. With high hopes, I went up the stairs to prepare myself for dinner.

BPOV

It was annoying, how Edward had managed to leave just my few nicest outfits after we packed, and I told Alice so. She just laughed and kept up with her preparations. Obviously, she knew something I didn't, but I pride myself on being stubborn, so I wasn't about to cave in and ask her.

When I was dressed, with my hair and makeup finished, Alice opened up a box that had been left on my counter, but not by me.

"Wait. Alice. Who's that from?"

"Edward, of course!" She replied with a giggle.

I sighed. "Another gift?"

She grinned. "Get used to it, Bella. Get used to it." And with that she opened up the box to reveal a silver necklace inset with three small emeralds.

"It's beautiful." I breathed.

She laughed. "I knew you'd like it!"

I frowned. "You were in on this too, then?"

She nodded. "Of course. It's very hard to keep secrets from me."

Just then, someone knocked on the door. Alice opened it and peeked her head out, so that the person outside the door couldn't see me, and I couldn't see them.

She whispered something to the unknown person, and scampered back inside the room to dig out a pair shoes and hand them to me. Fortunately, and thankfully, they were a pair of silver flats, one of my favorites of the shoes she had bought me.

I slid them on, and as I stood up, Alice opened the door, revealing Edward. In a tux.

Our jaws dropped simultaneously as we studied each other. Alice surveyed us, giggling. He did look wonderful, and as soon as he regained his voice, he complimented my outfit. I smiled, complimented his incredible tux, and picked up my bag, taking his arm as I waved goodbye to Alice. She promised to pack the few things that were left into the car, as she would be driving up to the Cullen's house in New Hampshire with it. Edward and I were to follow after dinner.

We rode the elevator down to the street, where Edward's car was parked. He opened all the doors for me, like the true gentleman that he was, and as he sat down in the driver's seat I couldn't resist asking:

"Where might we be going?"

I knew the answer before it came. "It's a surprise, Bella."

I sighed. "Couldn't you tell me just this once?"

He shook his head, still looking straight ahead to the road. After a short drive we parked, and walked down the street and across the road to a well-lit building. Down a flight of stairs was an Ethiopian restaurant.

I grinned and turned to him. "So _that's _why!"

He simply grinned back and opened the restaurant door.

The restaurant was dimly lit, and instead of traditional tables, there were low round woven tables, and shorter woven chairs. The host led us to a secluded table in the back and handed us our menus, according to which the tables were called _messobs_.

With his help, I ordered, and we spent a few minutes chatting until the food arrived. It was served on one large plate, which was about two feet in diameter, and was covered first with a layer of _injera_, soft thin bread with a slightly sour taste. Our meals were placed on opposite sides of the large plate, and we each received a basket with more _injera_, to use to pick up our food. With our hands, that is. I had had Ethiopian cuisine before, but not quite this authentically, and I found myself enjoying it.

All too soon, we were finished, having eating the _injera_ covering the plate to get the last of the lentil dishes served on it. Edward paid, and, because both of us were feeling quite full, we went for a walk down the street to a nearby park.

The air was warm, with a light, cooling breeze, and after walking for ten minutes or so, we sat down on a bench, facing the fountain in the center of the park. I was watching the fountain rather drowsily, when suddenly Edward pulled a small box out of his pocket and knelt in front of me.

I stared at him wide eyed, and only began comprehending his words as he asked, "I love you Bella, will you marry me?"

I couldn't speak, and might have forgotten to breathe, until he shook my shoulder. "Bella?"

"I- I-" I stuttered. "This is a huge question to ask me to answer right away. Can I think about it for a little bit?" I could tell from his face that he thought I didn't love him, but I just had to think about it. Getting married is something I really want to be sure about before I go for it, and I needed to think about how this might affect Abra, and my education.

He put the ring back in its box, then nodded unhappily and took my hand. "Let's go. It's going to be a long drive."

I nodded and squeezed his hand.

**A/N: I'm evil, leaving you all in suspense like this. However, the next chapter is written, and after I get 21 reviews on this one (or the story in general, from the time of the posting of this chapter onwards), I'll post Chapter 39. Okay?**

**The name of the restaurant is Addis Red Sea, and is located in South Boston. Yes, I have been there. **

**See you soon, and do review.**

**k-epic**


	39. One Night

**A/N: And here is the chapter you all have been reviewing for! Enjoy!**

**Chapter 39- One Night**

BPOV

The car ride out to Alton was long and silent. The highway was mostly empty at this time of night, so the drive was at least quicker than usual. Occasionally I would glance at Edward, but he would be looking at the road. Other times, out of my peripheral vision I would occasionally see Edward glancing at me, as if trying to discern whether or not I had made my decision. I was thinking about a lot though, and was not quite decided, though I was leaning towards an answer. I was still thinking as we drove through Manchester, and as we breezed past Concord, my eyes widened as I began to realize that my time at Harvard was over. I had my degree, and I would never spend another night in that dorm room. Two years of my life, and almost all of Abra's life had been spent there, and I would never go back for more than a short visit. As the immensity of all my thoughts hit me, I hardly realized when we drew up in the driveway of the Cullen's New Hampshire house.

It was exactly as I remembered, painted red, the enclosed porch off to the side, with the only difference being the electric candles in the windows that were lit only at night. Edward, always the gentlemen, even in the midst of turmoil, opened doors for me, and Esme and Carlisle rushed to greet us as we entered the kitchen. The kitchen was bright, but the woodstove was unlit, due to the season's weather. Both Edward and I pled tiredness and repaired to bed after only a few minutes downstairs. Alice had helpfully stored our luggage in our rooms, and Abra was asleep in a room at the end of the hall.

I avoided Edward, not really consciously, as we prepared for bed. Maybe I just didn't feel ready enough to face him, or maybe I just needed a bit more time to make up my mind.

Hours later though, as I lay in bed, my mind was made up, but I was still unable to sleep. After thinking for what seemed like a long while, but was probably only a few minutes, I slipped out of bed, put on my slippers, and left the room.

First, I padded down the hall to look in at Abra. The door creaked as I entered her room, but she slept peacefully, looking perfectly at home in an old-fashioned looking crib, one that Esme and Carlisle had found in a storage room in the back of the house. I bent down to kiss her forehead, and left, shutting the door, and padding back down the hall.

I passed the door to my room, and pressed my ear to the door of the room next door. Not a sound. I opened the door slowly, but this one did not creak. There, on the bed, was Edward.

I padded over to the bed, slipped off my slippers, and climbed in next to him, and lay down. His eyes opened drowsily.

"Bella?" He asked slowly, propping his head up on his elbow.

"It's me." I replied quietly, doing the same.

"Have you-" He began to ask, but I cut him off.

"Would you adopt Abra?" I asked softly.

"Of course! She's already like a daughter to me." He replied with a smile, beginning to comprehend where I was going with this.

"You'll have a lot to learn about taking care of a kid."

"I know." He replied seriously.

"Then, yes." I smiled.

His face broke into a grin, and he kissed me joyously. "That was the longest few hours of my life!"

"I'm glad I was able to end that. But I really did need time to think."

He nodded solemnly. "I understand."

I yawned widely, and he grinned at me. I lay my head back on the pillow, and he wrapped an arm around me.

In his arms, I fell asleep with ease, and slept deeply through the night.

EPOV

Waking up with my arms around Bella was the most heavenly thing I can imagine. The morning light shown in through the thin curtains, and softly lit her beautiful skin. Sleep lifted all her responsibilities off her shoulders, and made me remember how young she was. It was easy to forget, with her maturity and intelligence, that she was only barely 19 years old. Every time I remember her age, I am amazed all over again at her resilience and perseverance.

After at least five minutes of observation, she begins to wake up. As her eyes open and land on my face, she lights up, and kisses me. She yawns and rubs her eyes, beginning to sit up, and get out of bed.

"Where are you going?"

"I have to get dressed, before your parents figure out we spent the night together!"

"Oh." I say, rather dumbly.

She grins at me, puts on her slippers and makes to leave.

"Wait!" I call.

"What now, Edward?" She says, still facing the door.

"The ring! I need to give you the ring!"

She whips around, smiling widely.

I pull the box out of a drawer and open it to show her the ring. Taking her hand, I slide it on her fourth finger.

Pulling her hand from mine, she examines the ring. "It's so beautiful! What are the stones exactly?"

I take her hand back and point out the stones. "This middle one is a diamond, and these two are emeralds. They're set in silver. And also, this ring was my grandmother's, Carlisle's mother's. Before she died, she gave Carlisle her wedding ring to give to his first son, and her engagement ring to give to his second son."

Bella smiled and toyed with the ring. "It fits perfectly!" She hugged me, and then left to get dressed.

She shut the door and was inside her room before I realized I had forgotten something that was really quite important. How in the world were we going to tell everyone that we were engaged? At least mostly everyone would be expecting it…

**A/N: Hope you all are satisfied! Thanks for all of last chapter's reviews, and I would love to have just as many this chapter!! After all, 476 people have this story on alert, and that means that if all of you have reviewed once, only a quarter of you have reviewed twice! Come on guys. I value your praises, and will contemplate any constructive criticism you have for me. **

**Thanks again- k-epic**


	40. Sunny Orchard

**A/N: I really quite enjoyed the response to the last chapter, so here goes another! **

**Chapter 40- Sunny Orchard**

BPOV

As I dressed, I looked out the window of my room to see the sun shining on the leafy branches of the large trees that lined the dirt road off to the side of the Cullen's house. It was a beautiful day, and I resolved to go on a walk with Abra and maybe some of the Cullens after breakfast.

Before descending, I looked into Abra's room, but Alice had already taken her downstairs, so I picked up her whale, and went down to breakfast. I walked into the kitchen, and Edward, sitting in one of the rocking chairs with his breakfast in a plate on his lap, waved. I could hear Alice reading to Abra in the living room, and, from the doorway, I tossed her Abra's whale. Alice caught it and handed it to Abra who squealed, waved to me, and then hugged it. I waved back and continued on towards breakfast.

I put some of the food that had been left out for breakfast on a plate, filled a glass with skim milk, and sat down in the rocking chair opposite Edward to eat. He looked up as I sat down, and tossed the magazine he had been reading (a _New Yorker_ from a few weeks earlier) onto the little table beside him.

"'Morning, beautiful." He grinned.

I blushed. "Good morning. Would you like to go on a walk later?"

"Sure! It's a wonderful day for it."

"That's what I thought, too." I smiled and began eating my breakfast.

Breakfast was finished in time, and when Edward and I asked the other family members if they wanted to accompany us on our walk, they declined.

So it was that we went on our walk alone. The sun was shining brightly, and the birds were singing. Edward, instead of going up the dirt road towards the hill, took me around to the back of the house where we walked through the orchard. The grass was long and thick, and the apple trees old and gnarled, but the orchard still had a tended look about it. We walked away from the highway, to where the orchard ended, bordered by an old stone wall.

We sat down under what was (according to Edward) one of the oldest trees in the orchard and talked for a while about many things, school, Abra, dreams, childhood, books. It was afternoon by the time Edward brought up the topic we had both been somewhat avoiding.

"How are we going to tell them?"

I was still attempting avoidance. "Tell who what?"

"My family that we're engaged."

"Oh." I thought for a moment. "I don't know. Maybe we could announce it at dinner?"

He shrugged. "Hmm."  
"Or I could make my ring really conspicuous until Alice notices and asks us about it?"

He grinned. "That's a better idea. Actually, I rather like it." He picked up my left hand, and, saw that I was not wearing the ring. "Do you have the ring with you?"

I nodded and pulled it out of my pocket. He took it, slid it on my fourth finger, and kissed my hand before returning it to me. I smiled.

EPOV

I grinned, almost giddily, in response to her serene smile. She was beautiful, she loved me, and she wanted to marry me. I felt like the luckiest man on the planet.

We walked a little ways towards the house, when Bella stopped.

"I don't think I want to go inside just yet."

I nodded. "That's okay. It's a beautiful day."

She looked nervous, and I pulled her into my arms to comfort her.

"You're not regretting your decision, are you?" I whispered.

"No! No. I don't regret anything. I just…" She stopped.

"You just what?"

"Alice and everyone will make such a fuss."

"I wish I could stop them, but it's bound to happen, love."

She sighed. "I know."

I leaned my head forward so our foreheads and noses touched, our eyes closed. I could feel her relaxing into my arms.

Still, it surprised me when she suddenly stood on tiptoe and pressed her lips to mine. I hold her tighter against me, and we smile contentedly at each other as she pulls away.

I take her hand in mine, and she leads me back towards the house. As we pass the old pump house she murmurs something that I make out to be "My first"

I turn to her and take her other hand. "Your first kiss?"

She blushes and grins. "Yes."

I smile, gather her in my arms and spin her in circles like a small child until we are both far too dizzy to stand up. I put her down, and we both fall over, lying on our backs in the soft thick grass, looking up at the afternoon sky as it slowly ceases spinning.

A few minutes of contemplation later, we look at each other, and stand up. I take her hand as we enter the house, prepared for anything that's to come.

Well, prepared for anything except this.

Esme was in the kitchen, and when she heard us come through the front door, she turned, looking very flustered.

"What's wrong, Mom?"

"The mail came."

I didn't understand, but Bella gasped, and ran over to the table. "Where is it?"

Esme held out an envelope. "Here."

I looked back and forth, uncomprehending. "What's going on?"

Both women looked back at me. "Residency assignments."

My eyes widened, as I understood. This letter would dictate Bella's next life for the next three years. "Open it!" I urged her.

She bit her lip. "I can't!"

I stood behind her and wrapped my arms around her, resting my chin on her head and opening the letter. Esme watched us with a nervous smile.

"What does it say?" She asked a few minutes later, after we had read the letter.

"I'm being sent to Seattle, to work with at Seattle Children's, and with the Washington State Epidemiology Lab."

"Seattle." Esme breathed.

Bella twisted around in my embrace to look up at me, her eyes wide and desperate. "What'll we do with Abra? No daycare will take her for a forty-hour shift!"

I was about to answer her when Esme interrupted. "We can take her."

Bella turned to look at my mother. "What? I couldn't possibly-"

She was cut off as Esme continued, eyes blazing. "Don't think I didn't see the ring, dear. You're a part of this family, and you have been since you came up for Thanksgiving. And that includes Abra too. Carlisle and I have been thinking about going back to Forks for a while anyway, and this just gives us all the more reason too. He and I can stay in our house in Forks, and take care of Abra, and we can bring her to see you, or you can come visit, when you're not working. It'll be just fine."

Bella took a deep breath. "Well, when you put it like that…" She trailed off, and we all three laughed, relieving the tension.

Bella put down the letter, and Esme came over to examine the ring. She took Bella's hand to examine it more closely, and then looked at both of us. "So you two are…"

"Engaged." I finished for her, and nodded.

Her face broke into a huge smile, and she engulfed us both in a huge hug. "Wonderful."

**A/N: I hope everyone is satisfied. Please review; I'd like to get (dare I say it?) 30 reviews for this chapter before I post the next one. Thanks to all of last chapter's reviewers, you guys are great! **


	41. New England Summer

**A/N: The chapter everyone has (hopefully) been reviewing for. Thanks, you guys.**

**Sorry that it's mostly for plot advancement…**

**Chapter 41- New England Summer**

BPOV

Make no mistake, I was happy about my placement, excited to go to Seattle, and thankful that Esme and Carlisle were willing to take care of Abra, but it just felt too easy. And I couldn't help but feel a little guilty accepting such a gift from Edward's family. I know that they would say that they are my family too, but I'd been alone for so long, it was hard to accept what felt like charity, hard to make myself believe that I deserved it.

In a week or so, Edward would go back to Boston for summer semester, and a week after that, I would start my summer job, as an intern at a hospital in Vermont. Esme often volunteered there, and was able to drive me, just another favor for me to feel guilty about. I was looking forward to staying with the Cullens, though, and spending time with Abra. She was growing up so quickly; I could hardly believe it.

I was sitting in the dining room, holding a book, but not really reading, just thinking. I looked up from my book when someone entered with squeal.

"Alice?"

"Esme hinted that I should take a look at your hand- you and Edward are engaged aren't you!" She managed to get a long string of words out without a breath even between that immediately preceded and succeeded the exclamation.

"Alice, calm down." I smiled. "And yes. We're engaged. He asked me last night."

She took a deep breath, and sat down next to me on the couch. She took my left hand, and began examining my ring. "Tell me all about it."

I obliged, and spent the next fifteen minutes, detailing our night out, and how he had asked. She was momentarily angry at my not immediately accepting him, but understood as I explained my reasons, and how I had accepted him later in the night.

I finished my story with a smile, and she grinned at me. We spent a few minutes chatting about various topics (Jasper, college, summertime, etc.) until Esme called us in for dinner. Alice went into the dining room, and I went upstairs to wake Abra up from her afternoon nap.

Dinner was relatively quiet, as Carlisle's reaction to our being engaged was much less explosive that Alice's. Abra was still slightly drowsy from her nap, and didn't notice when Esme fed her some squash- which she supposedly 'didn't like'.

The next few days were uneventful; Edward and I spent a lot of time together and with Abra, as he would be leaving for the beginning of the summer term at Harvard. I was happy and appreciative that he was making such an effort to graduate sooner, but I would miss him while he stayed in Boston all summer. We played the piano, learning duets, or each playing one hand's part in a piece. We went on long walks by ourselves, and shorter walks with Abra around the area, and crossed the street to go visit the horses kept by Edward's neighbors. One night, Edward woke me up around midnight, and took me outside to see the stars. We lay down on a blanket on the lawn and just looked. I had forgotten, living in Boston, how many stars were in the sky. We worked on Abra's Spanish, reading to her, and speaking to her mostly in Spanish. It was the most carefree summer I'd had in years, despite being only a week long.

At the end of the week, I helped Edward pack a bag of what he wanted to bring back down to Boston- he had left most of his stuff there. Given a choice, Abra stayed home with Esme, and Alice and I drove down to Boston to get him settled in. On our way back downstairs, when we had finished (the elevator had stopped working again), Alice suggested that we stop at my former room to introduce ourselves to anyone who was staying there. I was unable to convince her that it was a bad idea, and so we did.

Alice knocked and I stood behind her, blushing. A girl with red, curly hair opened the door. "Hello?"

Alice grinned. "Hi!"

The girl looked askance at us. "Who are you?"

Alice began to answer, "I'm A-" but was cut off.

"Actually, what I meant to say was 'why are two random people at my door bothering me?'" She said, in a rude tone.

"Well," Alice replied. "This was Bella's" she motioned to me "former dorm room, and we just wanted to look around and say hi!"

A woman inside, probably the girl's mother, having heard what we said, called out to her daughter, "Victoria, just let them look around!" The girl rolled her eyes, and motioned us inside.

She showed us around the room, while her the woman unpacked. It was halfway decorated with posters of a boy band I didn't recognize. She pointed things out, interspersing her observations with rude little comments on how the previous resident had left stains in the carpet and colored marks on the walls.

We excused ourselves after a few minutes, and as I was leaving, I turned around in the doorway. "You try and keep stains out of the carpet and crayon marks off the walls when you've got a toddler, and tell me how it goes." With that I shut the door, but not before I heard the woman begin to reprimand her daughter, and walked quickly down the hallway to catch up with Alice. She high-fived me, and we continued down the stairs to the lobby, and then out to where her car was parked.

We stopped to visit Angela, who was very happy to see us, for a few minutes, and then continued on our way up back to New Hampshire.

We arrived around eight in the evening, as the sky was beginning to darken. The air was mild, and a breeze blew through the trees that lined the road. Alice went inside, but I sat on the steps for a while, looking up at the sky, thinking about how much I would miss Edward, and how much I already did. I couldn't wait until he graduated, too.

**A/N: Short, but hopefully a little bit worth it. Review please. Thanks. **


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